A new building at the Naval Tata Hockey Academy (NTHA) was jointly inaugurated by Tata Sons emeritus chairman Ratan N Tata and chairman N Chandrasekaran in the steel city on Tuesday.
Tata Steel CEO and MD, TV Narendran and vice-president (corporate services), Chanakya Chaudhary were among those present at the inaugural ceremony.
Senior Tata Steel officials briefed both Tata and Chandrasekaran about the operational aspects of the academy and the building.
The two-storey building boasts a hostel for 52 cadets (boys), rooms for 9 coaches, gymnasium, teaching room, Hall of Fame, office, dining and kitchen, infirmary, massage room, a board room with excellent view of the turf and also a viewing balcony for about 20 people.
First two phases of the project have been completed and very soon accommodation for 52 girl cadets and a practice field will be added as part of the third phase.
The foundation stone for NTHA was laid by Ratan Tata, also chairman of Tata Trusts, on March 2, 2018.
The cradle has been set up through a joint collaboration between Tata Steel, Tata Trusts and Indian Steel & Wire Products (ISWP), a subsidiary of Tata Steel, with a vision to professionalise grassroots hockey in the talent-rich tribal belts of Jharkhand and Odisha.
The new building at Naval Tata Hockey Academy in Jamshedpur on Tuesday.
Spread over 10 acres, the academy brings world-class facilities that include a Fédération Internationale de Hockey (FIH) global quality artificial turf with floodlights, international coaches, nutritionists as well as mental and physical trainers to provide high-performance hockey training.
Netherlands-based Bovelander Hockey Academy led by legendary drag-flicker Floris Jan Bovelander, former Olympian and assistant coach of the Dutch national team, has been engaged to develop the training curriculum for delivering high-performance coaching. A three-tier structure has been set-up starting with a grassroots programme for 10 to 12 years age group followed by training at the District Level Regional Development Centres (RDCs) and finally getting selected into the academy at an age of 14 years to 17 years.
The first batch of 28 boys was selected from the villages of Simdega, Khunti and West Singhbhum districts. They have undergone a year-long programme of rigorous training provided by Dutch coaches and Indian hockey legend Sandeep Singh. Presently, NTHA Jamshedpur has 32 boy cadets. Girl cadets will be inducted towards the end of 2021.
Over the past 3 years, NTHA has successfully resulted in 17 players representing their respective states at various national level tournaments. The academy aims to become a “Centre of Excellence” for hockey by creating a professional environment that enables young players to achieve their full potential. Players emerging from the cradle are free to pursue the game at the highest levels - playing for the country as well as clubs around the world.
