It’s always a pleasure to talk to N Mukesh Kumar, former Indian hockey player. As a matter of fact, his contribution to the Indian hockey can’t be just measured. For more than one and half decades he exhibited wonderful skills, playing a pivotal role in India’s success from the time he made his debut in 1988 till 2003. HIS HUNGER FOR THE DEVOLOPMENT OF THE GAME NEVER DIES. Now as a secretary of Telangana Hockey Association, Mukesh has been leaving no stone unturned to spread the sport in all all parts of the newly formed state. In an exclusive talk with the Greattelangaana.com, the ever agile Mukesh exuded confidence of producing champion players in the near future.
MS:What is the state of Telangana hockey now. How happy you are with the progress?
NMK:Well, to be frank it has been a great challenge for me as a secretary of the newly formed state. And I am glad to say that we have a wonderful team in Amrender Reddy (president) -vice presidents (Surender Singh, A Kashi) -treasurer (Alphones) and Gyanchand and Nidhi, who are all working pretty hard for the development of the sport. We also have wonderful selection commmittee, who represented the state for fifteen years. Our main motto from the beginning has been to see that traspenrency is maintained. Only the real talent has been encouraged. And we have been successful in conducting inter-district tournaments in the last 11 months in different places. The CM Cup at Karminagar in January 2016 was of a great success, with nine districts participating in both men and women categories. The selected players had an opportunity to represent the state Telangana team in nationals. It was a good exposure for the talented state youth. And I am delighted to mention that some of the players got employment, while some also got benfitted in their education field. Day by day we are improving and as team we are satisfied with the kind of progress we have made so far.
MS:How do you look at the future of the state team and what is to be done for further development ?
NMK:The future undoubtedly is bright with plenty of talent around. Come February we are planning to bring High Performance coach from Hockey India to educate our district coaches. We are planning a two-day seminar, which I am sure will help the aspiring coaches to benfit. We are also bringing FIH umpire to guide the local ones. And the seminar coaching and umpiring vedios will be distributed to the district units. This I am sure will help improve the standards of the passionate coaches and umpires in this region. Let me also tell you that the sub-junior girls have been doing very well. Recently they represented the state Telangana team at Ramanthapur (Tamil Nadu), and performed nicely. That is in fact a good sign.
MS:What support now you need from the Government in your effort?
NMK:As I mentioned that we have been very actively involved to conduct tournaments at various levels, which helped us to find good talent. But our main concern has been not getting the sponsorship, because when we organise an inter-district tourney, it costs minimum five lakh. And till now we have conducted six meets, spending money from our own pockets.
The SAAT of course has been supportive in allotting grounds, but we need big financial support from the state government to spread hockey in telengana in a professional way. We are hopeful that the government will extend its full cooperation to help us out.
BY Sudeer Mahavaadi – DD Commentator
