Q/What are the initiatives to revive hockey in Madhya Pradesh and Bhopal?
A/The history of Bhopal hockey need not be emphasised. Hockey… was the game of the state and of Bhopal. When I became sports minister in 2006, there was no movement regarding hockey and I had it in mind that hockey needed promotion. We opened the Women’s Hockey Academy in Gwalior in 2006 and the Men’s Hockey Academy in Bhopal in 2007, because within the state, these two places are best known for hockey.
Q/Are you satisfied with the way the academies and players have shaped up?
A/In women’s hockey, we have done extremely well. The academy girls comprised half the Indian women’s hockey team at Rio 2016. In every national camp we have 10 to 15 girls from the academy. In the junior hockey team that toured Chile in January (2021), both the captain (Suman Devi Thoudam) and vice-captain (Ishika Choudhary) are Madhya Pradesh academy girls.
As for the men’s hockey, Vivek Sagar Prasad (from Hoshangabad) is now in the national team and represented India in the 2018 Asiad (in Indonesia) and led the junior team in the 2018 Youth Olympics (in Buenos Aires, Argentina).
Q/Has there been enough focus on local talent?
A/The academies are allowed to take only 20 per cent outsiders. Also, this quota was made only last year. Till then, 90 per cent of the players trained were from Madhya Pradesh. In the women’s academy, most of the girls are now coming from Gwalior and showing huge talent for hockey.
Q/Is local politics, too, damaging Bhopal hockey?
A/Of course, there is also huge local-level politics. But I do not allow politics in sports. If anyone starts recommending anything when the talent search is on—like this is my nephew, or this is my uncle—then that player is immediately discounted. Let the boy himself apply. If he is talented he will get through. The only criterion of selection is talent. I am myself a national player (equestrian) and I have seen how much politics there is in sports. So I have vowed to myself that I will never allow politics in sports.