Hockey dying in DU,colleges strike it off their sports quota

Having played hockey briefly when he was student at Kirorimal College,Hindu College principal Pradyumn Kumar says: “In the 1970s and ’80s,hockey used to be such a craze. Ajit Pal Singh was the captain of the Indian hockey team at the time. We would go to Shivaji Stadium to watch matches. In my first year,I was in the college hockey team at Kirorimal. I remember in those days,most colleges such as KMC,Khalsa,Hindu and Hansraj had hockey teams. But gradually most of these teams disappeared.”

The Delhi University offers five per cent reservation for sports and extra-curricular activities (ECA) categories,but colleges say the number of sports seats are not enough to sustain a team.

Hansraj principal V K Kawatra says: “We do not get enough students for games like hockey and kho kho. Also,the sports seats are reserved subject-wise and the demand for commerce and economics is higher. Earlier,many sportspersons used to take up BA Pass course,but that is no longer the case. It becomes difficult to maintain a team in such a situation.”

Kumar agrees: “There are 36 to 37 seats in sports category in our college. These are divided among subjects. All good sportspersons want sought-after courses such as economics,commerce or English. Since the seats in these subjects are limited,all of them cannot get admission in that course. The result is that some of them go to another college. This has hampered the growth of team games like hockey. This is a problem that we face in all games that require a big team.”

KMC,SGTB Khalsa and Motilal Nehru College are among those in DU that still have hockey teams. But even they admit to facing difficulties in maintaining teams.

“The problem is that there is hardly any future in hockey in the country. It is a dying sport. Students are losing interest in the game. Most students would go for cricket. The number of applicants for cricket in Khalsa College was so large that we had to hold trials for two days,” Jaswinder Singh,principal of SGTB Khalsa,says.

According to colleges,absence of patronage to hockey is another reason for lesser number of candidates taking up the sport.

“A few colleges in the university have taken a keen interest in promoting hockey. We don’t want the game to die. Unfortunately,there are hardly any facilities provided to hockey players. There are no funds to provide them with good kits,” Singh says.