Plan to set up hockey academy for girls in Jalandhar, says Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi

Jalandhar, July 7

Sports Minister Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi has promised to set up a hockey academy for girls in Jalandhar on the lines of Surjit Hockey Academy for boys on the request of Surjit Hockey Society.

At a special meeting with the Punjab Sports Minister, Surjit Hockey Society general secretary Iqbal Singh Sandhu, chief PRO Surinder Singh Bhapa and Olympian Baljit Singh Dhillon apprised him of the concern over the sharp decline in the standard of women’s hockey in Punjab. “Punjab has always been ahead of other states, but the sharp decline in the level of women’s hockey is evident from the fact that our neighbouring state Haryana has its nine players in the Indian women hockey squad, which will be participating in the Tokyo Olympics, whereas only one player from Punjab will be a member of the team,” officials said.

Apprising the Sports Minister of the reasons for the decline, Sandhu said the local Government Senior Girls Secondary School (Nehru Garden) had been running the country’s leading girls hockey training centre for almost 40 consecutive years which has produced a good number of Olympians and international women players like Nisha Sharma, Harpreet Kaur, Ajinder Kaur, Rajni Sharma, Surjit Bajwa, Sharanjit Kaur, Pritpal Kaur, Rajbir Kaur, etc. Punjab had the honour of winning the highest number of national championships till 2016 and this hockey centre was shut down in 2016, which is the main reason for the downfall of women’s hockey in the state.

On this occasion, the Surjit Hockey Society presented a memorandum to Punjab Sports Minister Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi to set up a hockey academy for girls in the city. Sodhi assured the society that the government would soon set up a hockey academy for girls in Jalandhar to revive the lost status of women’s hockey in Punjab. — TNS