For Bharat Chhetri, a former Olympian who also captained the Indian hockey team, it is time to give back to his people.
Chhetri will host a four-day hockey tournament in his hometown Kalimpong
this month.
“We will organise the hockey tournament at my academy ground from March 13 and the final of the four-day event will be held on March 16,” Chhetri said on Sunday.
Chhetri is developing a hockey academy at Upper Payung, situated near 16th Mile, about 5km from Kalimpong town.
Such a tournament in Kalimpong was last held many decades ago.
The participating teams are from Calcutta, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Assam, Manipur, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Tripura, as well as from Darjeeling and Kalimpong.
The event will be a five-a-side tournament separate for Under-17 girls and Under-14 for boys.
Each team will have one goalkeeper and four players on the field and three on the reserve bench.
The duration of each half of the game will be 10 minutes.
These matches will begin from 10.30am.
The former Olympian took up the onus to set up the academy in Kalimpong in association with the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) in 2023. It is now on the verge of completion.
The proposed academy is being built on a plot measuring 60 decimal and will feature two turf areas measuring 130 metres by 80 metres.
The tournament will be held on these grounds.
Earlier, hockey was as popular as football in the hill town.
However, in the past four to five decades, interest in hockey has declined in and around Kalimpong, many residents pointed out.
“I would like to restore the glory of hockey in the hill town again. The tournament has been planned for that,” Chhetri said.
The Indian hockey team’s two consecutive bronze medals at the 2020 Tokyo and 2024 Paris Olympics generated some interest in the sport, especially among the youth,
Chhetri added.