New Delhi: Hockey India has joined 38 other National Associations from around the world to be a member of the World Masters Hockey (WMH) earlier in March. The WMH is the only entity recognised by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) that is responsible for organising International Masters hockey all over the world.
To carry out responsibilities at the state level, Hockey India encouraged all their State Member Units to form working committees with former national and international hockey players to focus on the state level activity. This will further provide opportunities for all age groups of both genders to continue their passion for hockey and be an active participant in the sports irrespective of any age barrier.
The State Masters Committees, formed by the Hockey India State Member Units will promote and further develop Masters Hockey across the country. The Committee’s first responsibility is to ensure that all the Masters athletes of various age categories are registered on the Hockey India Member Units Portal. The Committee members of the State Member Units include some famous names like former India captain Pargat Singh, Mir Ranjan Negi, Gurbux Singh, Birbahadur Chettri among many others.
The Hockey India Masters Committee, headed by Harbinder Singh as the Chairman of the Committee, RP Singh as the Convener, with Members including former India players BP Govinda, Jagbir Singh, AB Subbaiah, Surinder Kaur and M Renuka Lakshmi will look after all the matters related to these Masters matches and tournaments at the national level in India.
With a proper team, Hockey India Masters Committe and the mandate is ready to encourage, plan and execute various Masters hockey events in the country, it will give the former players a chance to deep-dive once again into the adrenaline rush that comes while playing the game of hockey.
Overwhelmed with the massive response received from State Member Units to form Masters Committee, Rajinder Singh, Secretary-General, Hockey India said: “We are happy to receive great support from our State Member Units who have promptly formed their respectively Committees with some very prominent names of Indian hockey.
“I am confident with their passion and endeavour, we will be able to develop a platform for former players in the Masters Category to remain in the sport regardless of their age. One of the goals of Masters Committee is to encourage players to come back onto the field and play hockey as a recreational activity and to stay in touch with the sport that they have always loved and been passionate about.”
