Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Despite the recent success of the Indian hockey squad at Olympics, there have only been a little over 1600 registrations for hockey so far for the Talent Search trials set to begin from August 24 by the Madhya Pradesh government.

The directorate of sports and youth welfare informed that there have been 1,630 registrations for hockey as of Tuesday, the eighth day of the registration calls. “We have received more than 40,000 applications to participate in the trials for the Talent Search,” said Pawan Jain, the director of sports and youth welfare department.

He said the department was aiming at selecting at least three times the seats at the state hockey academies from across the state during the trials. The coach of the Senior Hockey team of Madhya Pradesh, Rajinder Singh, said, “We are expecting at least 5,500 applicants for hockey by Saturday, as the registrations close. There are 56 boarding seats available and 18 for day-boarding players at the Men’s academy while 59 seats for boarding players and 7 for day-boarders at the women’s academy as of now. The department will decide on increasing the seats if we come across marvelous talents. “

Jain said that the selected players will not only be trained at the state academies but also at the feeder centres. “The department has set up feeder centres across the state. The selected players, which would be more than 450 as per the current planning, will be trained under best guidance and with the international standard infrastructure,” he said.

Amit Kumar, the secretary of Gwalior Hockey association, said “I am expecting more registrations. This is not a great number that the state could have achieved. The department has to go beyond usual means to gather the interest of the children. They should remain open at accepting walk-ins too.”

Feeder centres in Madhya Pradesh

Gwalior and Morena (Gwalior zone), Guna and Shivpuri (Shivpuri zone), Jabalpur, Katani, Narsinghpur, Seoni, Balaghat and Uamria (Jabalpur zone), Damoh, Sagar, Chhattarpur and Satna (Damoh zone), Indore, Dhar, Barwani and Khargone (Indore zone), Mandsaur, Ujjain, Shajapur, Devas, Ratlam and Neemuch (Mandsaur zone), Hoshangabad, Betul, Harda, Raisen (Mandsaur) and Bhopal, Sehore, Rajgarh and Vidisha (Bhopal division)

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