MOST OF Sharda Nand Tiwari’s school summer breaks were spent working at grocery stores in Lucknow.
Not wanting to impose the burden of his hobby on his father, a security guard, Tiwari saved every paisa of the Rs 700 or so he earned to buy hockey equipment.
A few hundred kilometres away, in Karampur, Uttam Singh was living his father Krishnakant Singh’s dream.
Krishnakant, an aspiring player, was forced to leave hockey and support the family after the untimely demise of his father.
So the small-time farmer invested most of his meagre resources in making his son, Uttam, a player.
Not too far in Atagaon, Vishnukant Singh was just six when he followed his sister Preeti, a national-level player, to the village ground. From that day, there’s been no looking back.
With different motivations and fascinating backstories, the trio’s paths first crossed at the Sports Authority of India’s academy in Lucknow.
Now, they are among the 18 representing India at the Junior World Cup where they will face Belgium in the quarterfinals at Odisha’s capital Wednesday.
Talent from the region started to dry up :
Five players from this team are from UP, signalling a hockey revival in the state that was once the game’s cradle in the country.
“It’s heartening,” says administrator and former player R P Singh. “People had forgotten about UP’s hockey history.
For almost two decades, we haven’t had a decent player who has been selected to play for India. This, I hope, will be the beginning of a new chapter.”
R P Singh belongs to a generation when UP produced some of the most stylish players the game has seen, such as Mohammed Shahid, M P Singh and Zafar Iqbal.
Through the 1970s and 1980s, Indian teams were virtually made up of players from the most populous state.
For instance, during a tour to Europe in 1982, 11 out of the 16 squad members came from the Meerut sports hostel.
At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, six players were from the Lucknow hostel. Overall, between 1976 and 1996, the state had produced about 60 internationals, including a dozen who competed at the Olympics.