Even though PR Sreejesh has made Kerala proud at the 2020 Olympics, the history of hockey in the state is very poor. Sreejesh was part of the Indian team that won a historic bronze at the recently concluded Olympic Games in Tokyo, the medal coming after a gap of 41 years. Apart from Sreejesh and 1972 Munich Olympics bronze medal winner Manuel Frederick, both goalkeepers, there are hardly any other hockey players to have emerged from Kerala who have etched their names in the state’s sporting history.
To cultivate any sport, strong grassroots-level development is important. However, very few schools in the state have hockey teams. GV Raja Sports School, Thiruvananthapuram (which Sreejesh graduated from) and Sports Authority of India (SAI) Centre, Kollam have national level coaches and good training facilities. Unlike these, Boy's Higher Secondary School, Malappuram, doesn’t even have a proper ground— and yet they managed to beat heavyweights like GV Raja and SAI Centre Kollam thrice in the finals of state-level hockey championships. They have also represented Kerala at the national level.
The coach, Usman MS, played a major role in achieving this by converting the school’s football team into a hockey team. Several of his students were selected to the state and district hockey teams. Some pursued their Masters in sports education. But the school is still facing a severe shortage of facilities. The normal size of a hockey field is 91.4m x 55m, but the school ground does not match this specification. While others play in a four-sided ground, students here train in a three-sided ground. On one side, the boundary length is 35m and on the other side, it is 25m.
“In Kerala, apart from GV Raja and Kollam SAI Centre, very few schools play hockey — schools in Palakkad, Kannur, Ernakulam and Malappuram districts have teams. We started hockey training in 2001 after trying our luck in football,” Usman said.
Usman joined the school in 1998 as a physical training teacher. Like other schools in the district, he started a football team but it wasn’t very successful. Only two players from the school got selected to the district’s junior team. Then, district office bearers of the hockey association advised Usman to take up training in hockey.
“They advised me to try hockey for the next two-three years because there were no achievements for the football team. The similarities in both the games helped a lot in the transition period and later,” Usman added. The association provided seven hockey sticks and we bought the rest for the team, he said.
The new hockey team started training in 2001. While several government schools in the state have excess land that can be used as a ground, Malappuram Boy’s HSS is not in the same position. Since the school is located inside the city, the scope for expansion is also limited. The team has been training on a 40m x 25m ground. But despite this, they have used their limited resources and achieved great success.
The team has defeated GV Raja and Kollam SAI in the state championships thrice— in 2011-12, 2014 and 2015— while also competing at the national level. “Once we scored 5-6 goals against GV Raja,” Usman said. However, the school didn’t get victories in the national tournament. But, in 2011-12, they got a fair play award. In that year, the tournament was held on a mud ground and the venue was Ranchi. In 2014 and 2015, the tournaments were held on synthetic turf in New Delhi.
“We have been training on the small mud ground. When the students play on the real-sized hockey field, they find it difficult. Also, most teams playing in the nationals have experience of playing on synthetic turf. Here, in Kerala, SAI Centre in Kollam has such a ground, which was constructed as part of the 2015 National Games. Last month, another one was constructed in GV Raja. One turf has been approved for Malappuram district but it will be constructed in Payyanad, where a football stadium is functioning, with funding from the state government. The new hockey turf will be constructed as part of the football stadium,” he said. Payyanad is 16.4 km away from Malappuram.
But Usman welcomes the decision since it is better for the growth of hockey in the district. He points out that the Boy’s HSS failed to get the project because of the lack of land. The ground will be constructed by Hockey Kerala.
“In our ground, we train with short passes but on the actual field, long passes and quick movement of players are essential to survive. Also, the players need to run all over the field, which is double the size as compared to their training ground. It needs more energy and power,” Usman explained.
In the 2001 state school zonal championship held in Thrissur, the school scored six goals against a team from Palakkad and beat them. “That is when we identified our potential and future. We came to the conclusion that we have the potential to continue our journey in hockey,” said the coach.