Gujarat University (GU) may be the biggest university in the state, but when it comes to contributing players for the hockey teams, it stands nowhere. There are over 300 GU affiliated colleges with more than 2.5 lakh students, but the number of hockey teams is just four!

This is despite the fact that every year each student pays Rs 20 to the GU and their respective colleges as gymkhana and sports fees. But if the officials are to be believed, the funds are not used suitably to revive the sport, in which India remained unbeaten at the Olympics from 1928 to 1956.

“Only the Gujarat College in Ahmedabad has a proper and good hockey ground. We will not find a hockey ground even in the GU campus that spends lakhs for uplifting and upgrading sports other than the national game,” a senior official of the Sports Authority of Gujarat told Newsline.

“There are no doubts that the craze towards hockey is fading with each passing day. Also, the budget which the GU and colleges gets for the development of hockey in the state is not being utilised properly,” said N J Chaniyara of the Physical Education Department, H L College of Commerce.

He added: “The authorities are not doing much to promote hockey even at the school level. Due to this, we are unable to find sportspersons who want to take up hockey as a career.”

Jwalant Bhatt, senior hockey coach, Gujarat College, feels the biggest problem that the game is facing today is that most players do not have access to opportunities. “There is a need to make the players independent and self-respected,” he added.

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