The magic of the Nehru Hockey Tournament

Dhanraj Pillay of Airlines (white) races ahead of PNB players during the 43th Nehru Hockey tournament, New Delhi in 2006

After the death of the country’s first Prime Minister Shri Jawaharlal Nehru in May 1964, several hockey lovers working in the Government of India decided to start a national level tournament in his memory. One of the aims of this intended tournament was to help revive the golden days of Indian hockey.

In the summer of 1964 the pride of Indian hockey had been dented. India had lost the Olympic gold medal in the 1960 Rome Olympics, losing 0-1 to arch rivals Pakistan. Two years later in the 1962 Djakarta Asian Games, India was humiliated 0-2 by Pakistan in the final.

The founding fathers of the Nehru hockey tournament were visionaries. They wanted to start a high calibre domestic tournament, which would provide quality competition to the leading teams of the country and help to unearth new talent. The men who planned and executed this dream were the former Union Law Minister Ashok Kumar Sen (President), Bhakt Darshan (Vice-President), G.C. Kapur (Hony. Secretary) and Shiv Kumar Varma (Joint secretary) who later served as Hony. Secretary from 1965 till July 2011. The late Shiv Kumar Varma was the longest serving member of the Jawaharlal Nehru Hockey Tournament Society (JNHTS) and played a stellar role in making it the most popular hockey tournament in the country.

The initial idea was to launch a high profile tournament, so that it could receive extensive media coverage. Delhi was considered an appropriate venue, as all the national dailies were based here. In those days the top hockey outfits of the country were from the Railways, Services and Police teams so the organizers were confident of using central government influence to ensure participation of the leading hockey playing sides.

By the time the tournament started in December 1964, the situation of the national team had changed. In October 1964, India regained the Olympic hockey gold medal by beating Pakistan 1-0 in the final with right half back Mohinder Lal scoring the match winner off a penalty stroke. The players returned as heroes and received the adulation from the fans reserved these days for cricketers only. The inaugural Nehru hockey tournament in December 1964 was the first domestic competition in which all the 18 members of the Tokyo Olympics gold medal winning team participated. The crowds turned out in large numbers to watch these heroes, and the tournament got off to a flying start.

The momentum of this well organized tournament got further enhanced by the dignitaries who attended the final and opening ceremony. Mrs. Vijaylakshmi Pandit inaugurated the first edition of the Nehru hockey tournament. The final was attended by the then Prime Minister of India, Mr. Lal Bahadur Shastri, who gave away the prizes. The next year the President of India, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan awarded the trophy to the captain of the winning team, Olympian Haripal Kaushik of the Sikh Regimental Centre. The Guest of Honour at the final was a future Prime Minister of India who was then the Union Information and Broadcasting Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi.

Through the passing years the stature of the tournament got further uplifted as several distinguished guests like Presidents of India, Dr. Zakhir Hussain, Mr. V.V. Giri, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, R. Venkataraman, Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, Gyani Zail Singh and Dr. Shanker Dyal Sharma, Vice-Presidents of India, G.S. Pathak, B.D. Jatti and Krishan Kant and former Union Home Minister Y.B. Chavan graced the final.

Since its inception in1964 the Nehru hockey tournament has not only achieved pre-eminence by attracting the best teams within India and some from abroad, but has also unearthed much talent. The Beighton Cup in Kolkata, the Aga Khan trophy and the Gold Cup in Mumbai are older and more historic tournaments but have got eclipsed by the Nehru Hockey tournament. This has happened because creditably the organizing committee (JNHTS) has not rested on its laurels but has continuously expanded its horizons by introducing age group tournaments.

After the senior tournament the far-sighted tournament committee started the Nehru Junior (U-17) Hockey tournament in 1972. This was followed by the sub-junior (U-15) Nehru tournament in 1983. The champion college team of each state participates in the Nehru Champions Colleges tournament, which started in 1993. The current secretary of the tournament committee Kukoo Walia, along with N.K. Sharma, were the umpires in the final of the inaugural Nehru Champion Colleges tournament in which N.A.S. (P.G.) College Meerut prevailed over Pachaiyappa’s college Madras.

The Champions College tournament has over the years given the country several outstanding players including Deepak Thakur, Gagan Ajit Singh, Prabhjot Singh, Devesh Chauhan, Ignace Tirkey, Sardara Singh and Sandeep Singh. To promote women’s hockey in the country, the Nehru Girls (U-17) Hockey tournament was started in 1994. Prize money is provided in each of these tournaments.

The Nehru hockey tournaments have grown in stature and are now an integral part of Delhi’s sporting calendar.

The victorious ONGC team with the Nehru Senior Hockey Tournament Trophy in the Capital in 2011.

The venue for these tournaments is invariably the Shivaji stadium in Delhi. However, when the tournament started, the Lady Harding ground as it was then known, was not fully constructed. It was just a grass field surrounded by open ended stone stands. The tournaments were conducted in the initial years with tin fences all around the grass ground. For some years the organisers managed the tournament with such temporary arrangements. In the initial years the prices of the tickets were moderate – Rs. 1, 2, 3 and 5 but still, the revenue from ticket sales was in the region of Rs. 40,000-50,000.

The foundation stone of the renovated stadium was laid on 13 July 1968 and it was renamed as the Shivaji stadium. Often in later years this stadium was not available – at one point renovation work had to be carried out for the 1982 Asian Games, or as in 1997, the Astroturf was not fit for play. However, whatever the difficulties, the tournament is always held on schedule, even outside Delhi if required.

Whenever the Shivaji stadium has not been available, the organisers have shown great adaptability and held the competition at various venues, like the Karnail Singh stadium, the National stadium and even in Gurgaon, Chandigarh and Bhopal. The golden jubilee Nehru hockey tournament is being played at a new look ultra-modern Shivaji stadium. Last season, the finals of four tournaments organized by JNHTS were played under floodlights.

Creditably, the Nehru Hockey tournament has, over the years, discovered several stars of Indian hockey. The brilliant right winger Balbir Singh of Western Railway was first spotted in the 1965 Nehru tournament, playing for Bombay XI. His sheer speed and unpredictability earned him a berth in the Indian team. Hockey lovers remember him for his exquisite acute angle winning goal against Pakistan in the 1966 Bangkok Asian Games final.

Similarly Michael Kindo, considered one of the hardest tacklers in Indian hockey, was discovered playing for Indian Navy in the 1967 Nehru hockey tournament. Northern Railway’s brilliant inside left Inder Singh got selected for the 1968 Mexico Olympics on the basis of his dazzling performances in the Nehru hockey tournament from 1964 to 1967. Northern Railway were champions in the inaugural tournament in 1964 and joint champions with Indian Navy again in 1967.

The languid and graceful centre half Ajitpal Singh first came into the limelight when he represented Combined Universities in the 1967 Nehru hockey tournament. The brilliant Ashok Kumar and Govinda who dazzled in the 1970s, also came into prominence playing for Indian Airlines in the 1970 Nehru hockey tournament.

The mesmerizing left winger Chand Singh of Northern Railway and the dashing Harcharan Singh of ASC Centre, rivals for the same position in the Indian team, both came into prominence during the 1969 Nehru hockey tournament. For many years the late Shivaji Pawar of Corps of Signals was a regular goal-getter in the Nehru tournament. His consistency was finally rewarded when he was selected for the Indian team, which won the 1975 World Cup in Kuala Lumpur.

In recent times, midfielder Gurbaj Singh, who made his international debut in the 2006 Doha Asian Games, first impressed playing for Indian Airlines (now merged into Air India) in the 2004 and 2005 Nehru hockey tournaments. Similarly, defenders Diwakar Ram and Dhananjay Mahadik came into prominence playing for ONGC and Army XI respectively in the Nehru hockey tournament.

It is lamentable that as the Nehru hockey tournament is about to celebrate its golden jubilee, the great crowd-pulling teams of the 1970s like Northern Railway and Sikh Regimental Centre have declined to participate, while BSF and Punjab Police have stopped forming powerful hockey teams and sending them to this tournament.

Former international umpire Kukoo Walia is now the dynamic secretary of the JNHTS. He has used several innovations to re-vitalise this historic tournament. The semi finals and final of the 2012 Nehru hockey tournament were held under floodlights for the first time, a trend-setter for future tournaments. A year ago the JNHTS started their own website. In the golden jubilee year there is live streaming of matches.

Since last year, free gifts are given to winners of a lucky dip held after each match. Kukoo Walia and his team of organisers are using various devices to get the crowds back to the Shivaji stadium and that is their biggest challenge in the years ahead.