A FEW GOOD MEN

During those heady days of Asiad 8216;82, a middle-aged villager from Bihar joined the mass exodus from across the country for the 15-day sporting pilgrimage to the Capital. Brij Nandan Prasad was born in a remote village in Nalanda district but his job as a junior engineer with Heavy Engineering Corporation gave him the resources to travel and watch world-class athletes in action.
Prasad went for a few football games 8212; a sport that had a decent following in his village 8212; but it was fast-paced action on astro-turf that got him hooked to hockey. While watching the Indian women winning the gold, the man in late 30s at that time was troubled by the fact that there were no tribal girls from his region in the squad. 8220;I had seen so many girls from tribal villages play hockey in schools in Ranchi and I knew they were good enough. And so I was troubled,8221; he says. That question changed his life and he was on the arduous road to hockey officialdom.
Prasad started the Bihar Women8217;s Hockey Association BWHA around two-and-a-half decades back and today Prasad, 65, has made the question that came up in his mind in early 8217;80s irrelevant. In fact, these days he comes across a different query: How come there are so many tribal girls in the Indian team?
With the formation of Jharkhand, BWHA got a name change but the assembly line of national level players that Prasad started hasn8217;t stopped. 8220;About 50 girls have played for India and there are countless who have a job because of hockey,8221; he says.

Hard beginnings
Listening to Prasad speak about his struggle to institutionalise the game in Bihar and his relentless battle to rope in sponsors to sustain a team of tribal girls is heartening. In this season where first the dubious deeds of a hockey official got exposed by a television sting and later the long reign of his boss came to an ignominious end; Prasad, along with a few other good men, provide the silver lining in the dark clouds looming over the sport.
Prasad goes back to the early days of his journey and the trip to Delhi when he was bothered by Bihar going unrepresented in the national side. 8220;For starters, we thought of locating someone with a blazer at the hockey stadium and ask about the missing Bihar girls,8221; he says. Their efforts paid dividends and somebody guided them to Kartar Singh, the then secretary of the Indian Women8217;s Hockey Federation. 8220;He told me unless we have a state association, our players cannot play at the national level. He asked me to file an application for setting up one,8221; he recalls.
A couple of months after that, Prasad received a letter asking him to send four best players for a month-long assessment camp to Delhi. That put Prasad in a fix. 8220;I had seen girls playing in schools but didn8217;t know how to zero in on the best four,8221; he says. With a help of a few coaches at the Ranchi University, he sent the girls to Delhi but still the application to form an association wasn8217;t cleared.
Next year the demand was repeated but this time Prasad was ready. 8220;I knew the hockey circuit by now and that meant the best girls from the state 8212; Alma Gudiya, Dayami Soy, Savitri Purti and Vishwati Purti 8212; were sent,8221; he says. So impressed was the national body by the girls that one of them 8212; Savitri 8212; was selected to join the Indian team and very soon the state association came into existence. 8220;My residential quarter at the HEC8217;s servants colony became the office of the Bihar Women8217;s Hockey Association,8221; says Prasad, now vice-president of the Jharkhand Hockey Association, also founded by him.
Later in December 1983, Prasad became aware of the harsh realities of running a hockey body as he had to send a team for the Junior Girls National Championship. 8220;Funding the trip was a problem. But we managed to convince the state8217;s Sports Authority of India unit to provide financial support,8221; recalls Prasad.
Next year came the big moment as Bihar was to finally get a chance to play the women8217;s nationals.

Sponsor trouble
The earlier financers didn8217;t oblige, nor Prasad8217;s efforts to rope in new sponsors worked. This meant Prasad had to withdraw money from his provident fund and send the team for the Shimla nationals in 1984. 8220;I had to do this since I couldn8217;t have missed this chance,8221; he says modestly. With budget meager, the women8217;s team jerseys were later passed on to the junior and sub-junior squads.
The team went on to reach the quarter-final stage. 8220;During our match against hosts Himachal Pradesh, the then vice-chancellor of the HP University, who was from Bihar, was present. As our team won 11-0, he was very impressed and told me that he would write to the then Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra, who was his friend, to provide some financial aid for the state association,8221; informs Prasad.
The CM intervention made things easier and the players traveled to Shimla. The next turning point came in 1987 when Bihar Police recruited the entire junior team. Ashrita Lakra, now an inspector with Ranchi Police, who was part of that team recalls those days of struggle. 8220;I8217;m well settled now and all this because people like Prasad sir who did so much for hockey in Bihar. Now hundreds of women players have jobs in various government and other organisations because of hockey,8221; she says.
Prasad might not be a household name around, but there are several hockey households in Bihar that can8217;t stop thanking him.