Game,goal

Sanjay Kohli,MD of Rakshak Industries,which makes the best-selling Rakshak brand,says his family has been in the sports goods business for decades. His business includes other brands too,like Vampire and BDM.

“After my grandfather moved from Sialkot to Jalandhar,he established a hockey manufacturing unit in Jalandhar in the 1950s and used to supply hockey sticks to the domestic market. But it was in December 1981 that my father Ramesh Kohli launched the ‘Rakshak’ brand of hockey sticks from the garage of our house with an investment of Rs 5,000. One may argue that the popularity of the game is declining but the business of hockey is in our blood and we can’t leave it,” says Kohli.

Kohli says Rakshak sponsored the Indian women’s hockey team in the 1982 Asian Games and the entire Indian contingent to the Barcelona Olympics of 1992.

Bal Krishan,owner of the Vijaynti Brand,too has his roots in Sialkot. After Partition,his father Mulakh Raj went to Agra and then came back to Jalandhar to set up a hockey manufacturing unit.

But the 75-year-old gets all misty-eyed when he talks about more recent events—like his Chak De! India moment. Krishnan says he was thrilled when Shah Rukh Khan proudly wielded his Vijyanti hockey stick in the movie.

So when the hockey World Cup came to Delhi,Kishen hoped his sticks would be in demand again—many players in the tournament use the brand—but that didn’t happen.

“I think it is a matter of visibility. In the movie,our brand name was prominently visible on Shah Rukh’s stick. For the World Cup,we made sticks for Kookaburra,the Australian sports equipment major,so it is their brand that is visible. People don’t know that the Kookaburra sticks,which they see the players use,are made here in Jalandhar.” For the World Cup,Vijyanti has supplied more than 20,000 hockey sticks,most of which have been made for Kookaburra.

Kishen’s workshop at Jalandhar’s Leather Complex area has nearly 25 workers. Kasturi Lal is among the seniors. “I learnt this skill from my father and passed it on to my children. My son and son-in-law are also in the same profession,” he says.

Radheshyam,another worker,says his parents brought him from UP to Jalandhar when he was a child. They lived close to the hockey manufacturing units and that’s where he saw the sticks being made. Workers like him earn anywhere between

Rs 7,000 and 8,000 a month.

But with hockey struggling to retain public interest,there isn’t much incentive for the manufacturers to build their own brand.

“The hockey equipment manufacturers of Jalandhar are content with getting orders from foreign companies. In fact,we too supply hockey equipment to several companies abroad,but we have a clear condition that we will retain our brand name,” says Ramesh Kohli of Beat All Sports,popularly known by its acronym BAS.

There are several players who are closely associated with the manufacturers,as they want their hockey stick to be made exactly to their specifications. For example,Indian forward Vikram Pillai uses a stick by local firm Dyna.

RS Kohli of Ransons Industries,a prominent sports equipment firm,says,“To some extent,the Jalandhar manufacturers are to blame. They are satisfied with taking orders from Puma,Kookaburra and Grey Nicolls. There is no investment in capacity expansion and no one thinks that he is capable of establishing a prominent international brand on his own. Most of the factories still work in primitive styles and their only objective is to procure more and more orders from suppliers abroad. This attitude isn’t restricted to hockey. Some of the best footballs,rugby balls and cricket bats are made in Jalandhar,but despite the long history of this industry,we have not been able to set up big brands.”