For national-level hockey umpire Shridharan Thamba, translating the IHF rulebook in Marathi was a long nurtured desire to help young upcoming players understand the game better

Seated comfortably over an easy chair with a smile playing on his lips, Shridharan Thamba is a stark contrast of his on field strict hockey umpire persona. As he readies himself to talk about the IHF (International Hockey Federation) rule book that he has translated into Marathi his bold upright personality takes over and once again he is at his hockey umpiring best.

Speaking about his recently released book, Thamba says, “The IHF issues a copy of their annual rulebook to all the member nations, who in turn issue it to the national level umpires, coaches and management of the various teams all over the nation. These rulebooks however are written in English and other than the top brass all over the nation people have trouble in reading these rules and even interpreting them.”

The book titled Hockey Rule Book 2009-10 was recently released at a function at the polygrass stadium in Pimpri. Speaking more about the book Thamba says “One of the most important things that moved me into writing this book was that I wanted the local players, coaches, team managements to understand certain concepts about the game better. In Bhopal there was another hockey umpire who had translated the book in Hindi for the benefit of the people there. As a result I did the same here.”

The rulebook an 88-page booklet deals with the various aspects of the game, the various rules regarding the different aspects, and also the newly induced rules of the game. About the new rules he says, “There are three new rules that have been introduced this year by the IHF which have been properly documented in the book. To make the same more clear and lucid I have included a picture of the hockey ground along with the important dimensions of the various places on the ground and explaining the new rules with the help of the illustrations. The rulebook is amended every year, and mostly close to 99 per cent of the rules in the book remains unaltered except for one or two rules. This book however will enable even a common layman to understand the concept of the game better.”

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