15 families from Kodagu are organising a five-a-side tourney in keeping with the city’s frenetic pace. The idea is to revive interest in the game
Kodavas are born with hockey sticks, goes a local saying. So, it’s no surprise that Kodagu has produced some of our finest hockey players apart, of course, from coffee, oranges and beautiful people. To keep alive that association and to revive interest in the sport, 15 Kodava families are organising a five-a-side hockey tournament to suit Bangalore’s fast pace from Jan 24 to 26 at the Hockey Stadium in Richmond Town.
K D Ganapathy told Bangalore Mirror, “We are a team of 30 members from 15 different families of Chickpet in Virajpet. We call ourselves the Coorg Challengers Chickpet Association (CCCA). The families’ motive is to revive interest in hockey among Bangaloreans and donate the profit from these tournaments to orphanages and blind schools. Today, we are what we are because of hockey and we want to give back to the sport by instilling that spirit in as many youngsters as we can.”
The team includes former Indian hockey players like K K Poonacha who is currently coaching the Oman national team, B J Kariappa, assistant to Indian hockey coach Michael Nobbs, K D Ganapathy, K M Somanna, C C Muthanna and others who have played for several universities and public sector units.
Birth of a tournament
“It all started four years ago when we found that hockey was a rare game in Bangalore except in a couple of schools,” Ganapathy said.
“At that time, we decided that the game or tournament should not be restricted to Kodavas alone. We approached clubs, schools and colleges, inviting youngsters to play hockey. However, there were problems of numbers and time as players weren’t able to last for the entire stretch of the game. That’s when we thought of a mini-hockey tournament, the CCCA Cup,” Ganapathy recalled.
Rink hockey
Five-a-side hockey tournaments are popular in Australia and New Zealand and are called rink hockey in Mumbai.
Unlike the regular 11 players in the traditional format, there are only five players in a team and they play across a field measuring 25X80 sq ft — a quarter of the original field. And each session lasts 7.5 minutes, said Bopanna, another member of the association.
Each team has to pay an entry fee of Rs 2,500 and winners get Rs 50,000 as cash prize.
“Last year, 24 teams participated and the profits were handed over to Thejaswi Seva Trust in Kumaraswamy Layout and Field Marshal Cariappa Hockey Trust in Virajpet to nurture potential hockey-players,” Ganapathy said.
source: http://www.BangaloreMirror.com / Home> News> City> Story / by Niranjan Kaggera / posted on Thursday, January 19th, 2012
