India needs U-10, U-12 national hockey tournaments: Marzban Patel

Bawa

Dronacharya Award-winning hockey coach and mentor Marzban ‘Bawa' Patel has come away mighty impressed with the talent on view at the recent Mumbai Schools Sports Association-organised U-12 and U-10 inter-school hockey tournaments at the St Stanislaus Ground, Bandra. Don Bosco High School (Matunga) emerged champions, beating St Stanislaus in both finals, but it's the playing style of the youngsters that caught Bawa's attention.

"Some of these Don Bosco and Stanislaus boys are hardly nine or 10 years old, but they played some very intelligent hockey. They efficiently used the length and breadth of the turf and confidently executed some good slap shots and swift passes. Some of them possessed some really good ball skills too," Patel, 72, told mid-day. In fact, he believes that if this bunch can be kept together and groomed for the next decade, more than half a dozen of them can go on to represent Team India.

"This group which comprises some of the best players from Don Bosco, Stanislaus, Children's Academy [Malad] and Dominic Savio [Andheri] should be kept together and groomed for the future. I'm willing to take up this job if no one else can. These are the kind of players that India needs," added the man, under whose tutelage players like Gavin Ferreira, Jude Menezes, Viren Rasquinha, Adrian D'Souza and the Walmiki brothers (Devindar and Yuvraj) have gone on to represent India at the Olympics.

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The sport's national governing body, Hockey India, also needs to focus on this specific age group, felt Bawa. "I believe Hockey India should seriously look at organising an U-10 and U-12 national-level tournament where players with genuine age-proof documents can participate. Hockey powerhouses like Belgium and Germany groom their players right from this age. That's how we can build future world champions," concluded Bawa.