Tata hockey academy launched in Jamshedpur

Jamshedpur March 3 (IANS) Tata Trusts and Tata Steel on Saturday announced the establishment of the Naval Tata Hockey Academy (NTHA) here.

The academy will be a world-class high performance residential hockey training facility for 14-to-16 year-old boys a release said. The academy was inaugurated on Friday.

"In keeping with the Tata group s Founder Jamsetji Tata s vision for Jamshedpur to "reserve large areas for football hockey and parks" the Academy is yet another world class facility in the city.

The academy is named in honour of Naval H. Tata to commemorate his contribution to Hockey in India his achievements as an outstanding sports administrator and passion for sports.

Tata held prestigious positions such as President of the All India Council of Sports (AICS) President of the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) for fifteen years and Vice Chairman of the International Hockey Federation (IHF).

The academy brings world-class facilities including an FIH global quality artificial turf with floodlights international coaches a nutritionist and mental and physical trainers to provide high performance hockey training to begin with to 26 boys from bastis and villages of Simdega Khunti and West Singhbhum districts.

This first batch of players have been selected after one year of rigorous training provided by Dutch coaches and Indian hockey legend Sandeep Singh at the grassroot level to over 5 000 boys and girls.

Through this for the first time in India a structured high-quality international level training is being provided at the grassroots level including playing on artificial turf truly professionalising hockey at the grassroots.

In due course the Academy is slated to similarly train and select 26 girls from Jharkhand.

Tata Trusts and Tata Steel have partnered with the legendary Dutch drag-flicker Floris Jan Bovelander through the Bovelander Hockey Academy and the One Million Hockey Legs programme to coach both boys and girls. Bovelander is the first Technical Director of the Academy.

At full scale the academy will have 52 boys and 52 girls training and playing competitively.

--IANS
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