Patna: There was just one player from Bihar when the Hockey India League (HIL) last took place seven years ago.
This sole representative from the state was former India international Ajitesh Roy, who played 56 matches for the eight-time Olympic champions — the last of which came in the 2016 South Asian Games in Guwahati.
Ajitesh played for the Uttar Pradesh team in HIL and finished third in 2017. He was also part of the Ranchi side that won the title in 2015, and looking back, he couldn’t help but smile at what was a great experience.
“After not being part of the league initially, I made my debut in the tournament in its third edition following some great performances in the domestic circuit. I got to play under Harendra Singh and, in the end, we were crowned champions,” remarked the former India defender.
However, as the league made a comeback after seven years on Saturday, there are no players from the state in the men’s or the women’s league. It’s quite disheartening, considering former India captain Zafar Iqbal hailed from here. Even current India women’s coach Harendra was born and brought up in Chhapra.
But the good news is that things are changing for the better and Ajitesh is playing an active role in it.
For starters, he along with his sister Arunima Roy and brother Abhishek Kumar set up an institution — RK Roy Hockey Academy — in 2018 in Patna and has been holding a five-a-side hockey tournament every year since 2019. Named in honour of his late father, it’s the first academy from the state to be inducted into Hockey India and he couldn’t have been prouder of how it has evolved.
“We started with about 15 students but currently have more than 60 kids at the academy. The number will grow if the mentality of the parents changes and they give their children a chance to play. If that happens, we will surely have players from the state in the national fold in the coming days,” added Roy.
He is, however, not alone to feel this optimistic. Even the coaches at the state-run hockey academies believe that within a few years, players from Bihar will be ready for national camps.
Meeni Kumari and Ranu are two such coaches who have been toiling to make sure the kids at the Eklavya Residential Training Centres for Hockey — a state-run initiative — get the best possible coaching, something which was hard to get when the duo was young.
There are three such academies in Bihar now — two for girls in Patna and Purnia and one for boys in Muzaffarpur — and nearly 90 students are currently part of the programme.
While Ranu has been training at the Purnia academy, Meeni was connected to the Patna centre and she was over the moon describing how the situation has improved by leaps and bounds.
“When we hear the national anthem and see the players stand in line before the matches, we get goosebumps all over because even though we dreamt of it, we could never achieve it. But with everything that the government is doing, we will be able to live our dreams through today’s children,” Meeini had said on the sidelines of the Asian Champions Trophy in Rajgir last month.
However, she believes the biggest challenge now is to get the students to start playing at a younger age. It will likely happen in due course because, for the first time, the people of the state got to witness first-hand the huge potential of sports when Bihar hosted the Women’s Asian Champions Trophy earlier this year.
Not only the fans, even the young hockey players were hugely inspired seeing the stars in action. Akanksha Yadav, a centre forward training in Patna, was so deeply moved seeing the matches that she is dreaming of playing like them one day.
“Watching them play has created more interest among us and if we get a chance someday, we will try to do even better than them,” said the 15-year-old, who was among a handful of lucky players to have a session with Salima Tete and Navneet Kaur earlier this year in Patna.
To make sure their dreams come true, the government indeed is putting in a lot of effort. As planned, the players from the three Eklavya hockey centres have been shifted to the Rajgir Sports Complex where they will stay and train together.
But it’s not just the hockey players with a chance to train there.
“State centres of excellence for athletics, wrestling and weightlifting have all been shifted. We have also started the sports mess, and hostels have been allotted to the sportspersons and coaches,” said Ravindran Sankaran, director general of Bihar State Sports Authority. “We have also started coaching camps for rugby, volleyball, athletics and swimming for the national games.”
And all of these are part of the big plan.
“We want one or two Bihar players representing India at the 2032 Olympics. We will then be targeting more players from the state in the contingent in 2036 and maybe a medal or two,” said Sankaran during an interaction with TOI.
These are high expectations but not impossible at all. And if young players like Akanksha can be inspired to give their best, then no target is unachievable.