Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Once considered a nursery for hockey players, Bhopal is losing importance in the sport as it has failed to produce an Olympian hockey player in last 23 years.
This city produced eight Olympians and more than 20 international hockey players from 1900s to 2000. Since then, Bhopal has not seen a major hockey player emerge in more than two decades.
Despite having world-class turf, top-rated hockey infrastructure and Madhya Pradesh State Men's Hockey Academy, the residents have lost craze for the sport.
At present, academy has 12 athletes, which has 74 seats of which 49 are full. New athletes will join the academy soon. State Women’s Hockey Academy in Gwalior has only two athletes from Bhopal.
Sameer Dad was the last hockey Olympian in the city representing the country at Sydney Olympics in 2000. In 2020, a player from Itarsi, Vivek Sagar Prasad of State Academy, broke the dry spell as he was member of Indian team that won bronze medal in Tokyo.
Losing fizz
Veteran Hockey Olympian Jalaluddin Rizvi said, "Till 1980s, the city had 65 clubs and they competed. Later, club culture vanished and people stopped taking interest in hockey. Now, state academy has limited seats and there are very few hockey clubs. It has become hard for city athletes to take part in the sport."
He added, "Now, sportsmen play for money and not everyone gets money in hockey. Hence, city's athletes opt for different sports. It was a matter of pride to play in Aish Bagh Stadium. But when we see its poor infrastructure and bad upkeep, we feel like crying. If we can’t maintain the place that gave us Olympians, how can we maintain the sport?"
Olympians from city: Ahmed Sher Khan and Ahsan Mohomed Khan (1936 Berlin), Latif-ur Rehman and Akhtar Hussain (1948 London), Inam-ur Rahman (1968 Moscow), Aslam Sher Khan (1972 Munich, 1976 Montreal), Syed Jalaluddin Rizvi (1984 Los Angeles), and Sameer Dad (2000 Sydney).
