Ministry help for hockey’s hidden heroes

New Delhi, May 7 The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has taken the development of Hockey at the grassroots seriously.

Taking cognizance of The Sunday Express story on relatively unknown people working to make the sport popular, Sports Minister MS Gill had a meeting with some of them and assured them of full support from the ministry in their endeavours.

The representatives aired their grievances and told the minister about what they needed to work on more effectively. While former Olympian Balwinder Singh Shammi — who runs the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Academy in Amritsar — had said they wanted recognition from the Sports Authority of India to spread the game further, Baldev Singh from Shahbad was unable to make it to the meeting, having suffered a minor accident.

“They wanted SAI to adopt the academy for its day-boarding scheme which will help trainees get proper diet and training facilities. The minister got in touch with SAI and we have already deputed a team to visit the academy and see what can be done,” a ministry official said.

Meanwhile, four members of the current Indian women’s team, who train under Baldev, also met the minister. Others featured by The Sunday Express — Merzban Patel, Rajesh Chauhan and Brij Nandan Prasad were unable to make it.

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Ministry help for hockey’s hidden heroes

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