Last Updated: July 14, 2023, 07:41 IST
Hockey India president Dilip Tirkey (IANS)
Former India captain and the present HI president Dilip Tirkey talks in regards to the significance of a thriving home construction.
There’s a noticeable change in hockey legend Dilip Tirkey’s voice as he will get all the way down to explaining the brass tacks of his formidable pet undertaking: Grassroots Development Program. The pitch will get a bit of louder and the fervour in his voice turns into fairly obvious.
After turning into the first-ever participant to be elected because the president of Hockey India final 12 months, Tirkey, amongst different duties, has devoted himself to unearthing new expertise from throughout the size and breadth of the nation by way of which he goals to create a large, various pool which can function a unending provide line to the senior males’s and ladies’s groups.
Having performed and blossomed in an period when Indian hockey groups needed to additionally struggle with monetary and infrastructural hurdles, it was sheer willpower and love for the sport that helped Tirkey to log over 400 appearances on the worldwide stage.
And a person with such wealth of expertise is aware of which space wants extra tending to. Hence his push for creating a thriving hockey tradition on the home stage to put a strong basis which can finally translate into success on the worldwide stage.
“To develop any sports activities, the work ought to start from grassroots stage and for hockey that’s crucial,” Tirkey told News18 Sports during the Asian Champions Trophy in the national capital on Thursday.
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As part of his plans, HI conducted its first-ever junior men and women zonal championships earlier this year from March 19 to 26. A total of 23 men and 24 women teams spread across the North, South, East and West zones competed in 137 matches.
“Our sub-junior, junior players need better exposure, quality competitions, and we have to give a proper shape to their training programme. We have to create a core group. We will have an U-17 sub-junior team, (we want to) give them responsibility, motivate them. So that’s why it’s (grassroots development) important,” stated Tirkey who was bestowed with the Padma Shri award in 2004.
Another motive behind making a strong home construction is to assist get hockey gamers a way of feat and extra importantly, jobs.
“Not each participant will be capable of play for India. We wish to create sturdy zones so {that a} participant can say that he/she represented a sure zone. From these zones we’ll create a core group at U-17, U-19 stage. So they are going to all be a part of a course of. We could have created a robust pool within the junior stage itself,” said Tirkey.
The results though won’t be visible overnight and Tirkey is prepared for the long haul.
“Right now we have inter-zonal championships – in it academies are also participating. We have divided the academies in two pools. They will compete against each other and from there we will choose the top players for our core group. This will take time; it may take two years to complete a framework,” he stated.
Feroz KhanFeroz Khan, Principal Correspondent at News18, has been protecting sports activities for over a decade and specialises in digital media. He writes primarily on cricke…Read More
Source: www.news18.com
