Jharkhand’s Simdega district, known as the hockey cradle of the state, has earned applause from the national hockey federation for being the only district in the country to involve all panchayats in selecting a talented pool of players for high-level tournaments.

The once Maoist-affected backward district, which has so far produced over 40 international hockey players including Olympians Michael Kindo, Sylvanus Dungdung and Salima Tete, has till now organised competitions involving 87 panchayats out of a total of 94 panchayats involving over 1900 players.

“Simdega district has become a shining example of the Hockey India initiative, Har Ghar Ho Hockey Ki Pehchan, which aims to ensure that every household in the country is exposed to hockey as a sport. In fact, according to the data available with us, it is the only district in the country which has organised competitions for young children involving almost all panchayats so that talented players can be identified for future high-level competitions,” said Hockey India secretary-general Bhola Nath Singh.

Hockey India recently announced the Har Ghar Ho Hockey Ki Pehchan programme, which aims to engage all districts in hosting regular coaching camps and intra-district competitions in order to spread hockey to remote parts of India.

Hockey Simdega president Manoj Konbegi said: “In Simdega, there are 94 panchayats. We are combining three-four panchayats and hosting trial tournaments between teams from these panchayats. We have already held 22 tournaments across 87 panchayats, with over 1,900 players competing. We will organise two more tournaments comprising teams from the remaining seven panchayats.”

“The selected youngsters for these tournaments are under 16 years and have very limited hockey experience till now. We are selecting players under the age of 16 because our aim is to provide them with proper coaching so that they are ready to be selected for sub-junior tournaments by next year,” explained Manoj on the reason behind maintaining these selection criteria.

Manoj further said: “We plan to host a tournament between the winning teams from all 24 tournaments. From there, the top four teams will compete in a tournament alongside eight other hockey teams from Simdega who have experience of playing in district-level and other such tournaments.”

Another reason why Hockey Simdega decided to host the tournament across panchayats was that the association wanted youngsters from all areas to have an equal opportunity to compete.

“If we host a tournament in the district headquarters, aspiring players, mostly from below the poverty line, who come from rural areas or tribal belts do not get a chance to compete as they are unable to travel far. So, we appoint a team of 2-3 members from the technical committee that visits schools across these panchayats, engages with representatives and selects a team of players. Then we post advertisements in newspapers and social media a week before conducting the tournament,” Manoj added.