Hockey fever grips youths, 200 show up for selection trials

Jalandhar, August 30

It seems that Indian hockey team that won the Olympic medals for two consecutive times has changed everything at the ground level too. Most of the players in the team were from Punjab and Harmanpreet Singh was the captain. It was for the first time ever that over 200 budding players showed up for the selection trials for the Punjab Sub-Junior Hockey Team, which are being held at Surjit Hockey Stadium.

The number was so high that the selection trials that started on Thursday continued today as well.

The authorities said this time the players came from several nondescript and border villages and areas like Sangrur, Fazilka, Ferozepur, Hoshiarpur and Anandpur Sahib from where not much participation was witnessed earlier.

“Most players turned up from Jalandhar, Amritsar and Tarn Taran districts, but this time, the participation was from other districts too. This is because of the mushrooming of several sports academies at the grassroot level,” Kulbir Saini from the Surjit Hockey Committee said.

The 14th Hockey India Sub-Junior Men National Hockey Championship will be organized by Hockey India from September 23 to October 3 in Chandigarh for which the trials were started yesterday at Surjit Hockey Stadium.

Hockey Punjab president Nitin Kohli and general secretary Amrik Singh Powar said on National Sports Day, Hockey Punjab paid tributes to Major Dhyan Chand, the magician of hockey, and also informed players about his achievements. They said for the first time, such a large number of players participated in these selection trials.