Tracking Tribal Tryst With Hockey Stick
India is hosting the men’s world cup hockey championship for the third time and our state is honoured to organize the mega tournament this year. The Odisha Men’s World Cup Hockey Championship would be played at the revamped Kalinga stadium in Bhubaneswar from November 28 to December 16.
And the anticipation is palpable among hockey lovers and enthusiasts across Odisha. But it is more so in Sundargarh district, which is, in fact, the real face of state hockey. Unlike other popular sportslike football, cricket and volleyball,hockey in Odisha is mostly confined to Sundargarh district and that too to one community—tribal people, especially Christians. The non-Christian population in the district, on the contrary, is not very inclined towards hockey.
A glance at the list of international hockey players from Odisha reveals that barring three or four names, the rest are Christian tribal hailing from Sundargarh district.It’s no wonder that the district has earned the monikers of the ‘cradle of hockey’ or ‘gold mine of hockey players’.
Over the years, hockey has been an integral part of the life of the tribal people in this districtalong with their community counterparts in neighbouring Deogarh and Sambalpur districts. Being born athletes, tribal people have a natural affinity for hockey and their skills on the field have taken the game to a whole new level.
Plus, the passion for the game in tribal villages runs high with even elderly people occasionally picking up the stick to show their dribbling skills. The craze is more evident in various inter-village tournaments,with winners being awarded ‘kukuda’ (cock) and ‘khasi’ (goat) as trophies. Participation of more than 50 teams in these village-level tournaments is a normal thing and people gather in thousands to watch them.
So, how and when did hockey arrive in this area? And how did it become an integral part of the tribal people? Nobody can exactly pin point when and how hockey came to Sundargarh. But according to scholars, the British army introduced hockey in India and the Christian missionaries brought it to the tribal-dominated Chhota Nagpur area during the 1860s. The Evangelical Lutheran Church made the first foray into the Ranchi region and from there, they gradually moved to other parts gradually.
In fact, wherever the missionaries set up schools, they included hockey as an extracurricular activity. The mission schools in Keshramal region in Sundargarh district (then part of the erstwhile Gangpur state)formed one of the earliest pockets of the sport. It is said that after Sunday prayers,the priests used to play hockey with the villagers. It started as a leisure activity, but the tribal villagers converted it into a passion.
It is believed that hockey caught on with the tribal community more than football or any other sport because everything required for it could be found in neighbouring forests. They used to make hockey sticks of kendu tree branches and bamboos. Even today, youngsters in the interiors of the district make their own hockey sticks by bending a kendu branch or a bamboo shoot at one end to create a curve and then slow heating it over fire. Of course, the scenario has somewhat changed with such homemade sticks banned in rural tournaments. Now, village-level players use modern sticks and balls.
Since the missionaries first introduced hockey in Ranchi region, earlier international players from the tribal community came from Jharkhand with Jaipal Singh Munda, Michael Kindo, Sylvanus DungDung, Manohar Topno and Ajit Lakra being some of the more illustrious names. Naturally, national selectors focused on Ranchi for spotting tribal talent. Odisha’s tribal talents came into the limelight in the late 70s. After retirement from international hockey,Michael Kindo joined Rourkela Steel Plant in 1977 and captained the Odisha team to the semi-finals of the national hockey championship twice in 1979 and 1980. This helped to draw the selectors’attention towards Odisha. The consecutive successes also caught the attention of the state government.
In 1982, Peter Tirkey wrote a new chapter for Odisha hockey by becoming the first international player from the state.He was selected for the Indian team to play in the junior world hockey championship in Malaysia. The same year, Odisha bagged the gold medal in the national rural hockey championship held at Shimoga (Karnataka). This was the state’s first medal at a national-level hockey tournament, prompting the then JBPatnaik government to initiate the promotion of hockey in Odisha.
In 1984, the state government launched a policy for establishing sports hostels and accordingly, the first hockey hostel for boyswas established at Panposh (Rourkela) in 1985. Three years later,a girls’ wing was added to the hostel. This revolutionized state hockey. Realising the vast potential for hockey in tribal areas,the Sports Authority of India (SAI) introduced special area games policy and adopted BSHigh School of Sundargarh in 1988for promoting hockey. Dilip Tirkey learnt his hockey in this school.
Later, the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) got inspiration from the success of the Panposh sports hostel and decided to establish its own hockey academy in Rourkela. Birendra Lakra is the biggest contribution to Indian hockey from SAIL Hockey Academy. In 1993, Gloria DungDung of Panposh hockey hostel became the first woman international hockey player from Odisha. The emergence of Dilip Tirkey in 1994 and Jyoti Sunita Kullu in 1995 at the national level changed the face of Odisha hockey and since then, there has been no looking back for Odisha hockey.
Dilip Tirkey earned the distinction of becoming the first Olympian from Odisha when he was selected to play at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.He is the only tribal player to have played in three Olympic Games (1996, 2000 and 2004). Eight more players from Odisha have earned the tag of Olympians. They are Lazarus Barla (2000), Ignace Tirkey (2004, 2012) William Xalxo (2004) and Sunita Lakra, Deepgrace Ekka, Lilima Minz and Namita Toppo (2016) among women.
In the 2004 Athens Olympic Games,Dilip Tirkey was the skipper of the Indian team. After him, a few other Odia players—Ignace Tirkey, Prabodh Tirkey, Jyoti Sunita Kullu and Sunita Lakra—have also been nominated as national captains.
Dilip Tirkey, Ignace Tirkey and Jyoti Sunita Kullu have also got the nation’s highest sporting award, Arjuna Award, for their contributions to national hockey. Dilip Tirkey and Ignace Tirkey have also been honoured with Padma Shri.
Today,the number of international players from Odisha has swollen to more than 65, including both men and women segments.Thanks to the over century-old relationship with hockey, Odisha is today reckoned as a leading state in the game.
This has likewise benefitted budding hockey talents in Sundargarh district. It nowboasts of decent infrastructure with four synthetic turfs (two at Panposh and one each in Rourkela and Sundargarh). And more than 300 boys and girls learn the skills at the four training centres in the district.
Besides being an expression of sporting dexterity, hockey has also proved to be a dignified profession, providing employment to more than hundreds of tribal youth across the country. Defence forces, BSF, CRPF, Railways, state police, banks and various PSUs enrol tribal boys and girls as their employees.