HOCKEY Associations—District or State — are formed for the development and promotion of the game of hockey. It is due to these associations, players get a chance to show their skills and move up the ladder. But in Nagpur, three associations Vidarbha Hockey Association (VHA), Vidarbha Women’s Hockey Association (VWHA) and Nagpur District Unified Hockey Association (NDUHA), are organisations who have earned “Shame” due to their inability to promote the game for several years.
VHA and VWHA have two beautiful hockey grounds in the heart of the city, one off Amravati Road and the other at Sadar, behind Tirpude College. But both the grounds are in a neglected state where hockey is hardly played. A visit to both grounds shocked this scribe. The grass is of knee height and the field can be used to graze cattle. Agreed that during the rainy season hockey is not played but it is the duty of these organisations to maintain their grounds.
Until 2020, VHA used to be an affiliated unit of Hockey India (HI) and had powers to conduct the game in the region. But after HI’s one-state-one-unit diktat, VHA lost its affiliation and since then the association has been fighting a legal battle against HI through a High Court appointed Administrator. This forced the association to stop hockey activities in the city.
The Administrator was appointed after a split in the executive committee of VHA.
VWHA, on the other hand, is a defunct body without any affiliation and after the Indian Women’s Hockey Federation merged with Hockey India, it has no say. Still, they have the hold of the ground at Sadar. But sadly it is very poorly maintained.
As for NDUHA, it got affiliation from Hockey Maharashtra immediately after their ‘formation’ sometime last July.
The ‘newly-elected’ body announced to hold several tournaments for the calendar year and even went on to say that they are finding it difficult to get dates for tournaments. They ‘hired’ VWHA ground and did start a tournament. Alas! They failed to complete it. Till date NDUHA has not completed a single tournament, reasons better known to them.
In between, another association cropped up in the name of Vidarbha Hockey Players Association (VHPA) and started functioning from VHA ground. It conducted tournaments and even distributed attractive prizes to attract players and clubs. But once NDUHA came into existence and warned hockey players and clubs against participating in ‘unsanctioned’ tournaments of VHPA, the tournaments dried up.
NDUHA asked VHPA to get affiliation to hold tournaments. But VHPA refused to do so, stating that VHA is still the governing hockey body of the region and it did not recognise NDUHA.
In all bickering and ego clashes of the hockey officials, only the players suffered. All those associated with the aforesaid associations hardly made any effort to wipe out their differences and come on a common platform for the development of the game.
Meanwhile, it has been learnt that a government department in Nagpur is recruiting five hockey players through sports quota. The bigger question is when there are no hockey tournaments conducted in Nagpur, why select hockey players? Instead, other sports like football, cricket, to name a few, should get the players who can show their talent and above all get a chance to play throughout the year.
It is high time government took cognisance of this serious matter and warned all the warring factions or took control of both these grounds. Then only hockey can see the light of the day in Nagpur.
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