Better Exposure and High-Quality Competitions Are Needed for Our Junior Hockey Players: Greetings, President Tirkey

When discussing the specifics of his grandiose pet project, the Grassroots Development Program, hockey star Dilip Tirkey’s voice noticeably changes. His voice grows more passionate as the pitch rises and becomes a bit louder.

Tirkey has dedicated himself to finding new talent from all over the nation in order to create a large, diverse pool that will serve as a never-ending supply line to the senior men’s and women’s teams. Tirkey was the first player to be elected as the president of Hockey India last year.

Due to his perseverance and passion for the game, Tirkey was able to make over 400 appearances for India at the international level at a time when Indian hockey teams also had to overcome financial and infrastructure challenges.

And a guy with that kind of experience understands where additional attention is needed. In order to establish a strong basis for success at the international level, he is pushing for the development of a vibrant hockey culture at the local level.

In order to promote any sport, effort must start at the grassroots level, and for hockey, this is crucial, Tirkey said on Thursday at the Asian Champions Trophy in the capital city.

In accordance with his objectives, HI held its first-ever junior men’s and women’s zonal championships from March 19–26 of this year. 137 matches were played between a total of 23 men’s teams and 24 women’s teams from the North, South, East, and West zones.

“Our sub-junior and junior players want more exposure, top-notch contests, and we must offer their training plans a suitable framework. A core group has to be formed. We’ll have a U-17 sub-junior squad, and we want to empower and inspire them. So that’s why it’s vital (for grassroots development),” said Tirkey, who received the Padma Shri award in 2004.

A strong home framework is also necessary to provide hockey players a feeling of accomplishment and, more crucially, employment.

Not all athletes will be able to represent India. So that a player may claim to have represented a certain zone, we want to establish strong zones. We will develop a core group at the U-17 and U-19 levels from these zones. They will thus all take part in a procedure. We’ll have developed a robust junior level pool, according to Tirkey.

However, the benefits won’t be apparent right away, and Tirkey is ready for the long haul.

We now have inter-zonal competitions in which academies take part. The academies have been split into two pools. They will compete against one another, and we will then choose the best competitors for our core group. It may take two years to finish a framework, so this will take some time, he added.