Sports
New face to head Hockey – SSP Kamal Pushpakumara
Some may say that it is wishful thinking to make Sri Lanka the best hockey playing nation in the Asian region above India, Pakistan, South Korea and Malaysia but that is going to be the vision of Kamal Pushpakumara, who will be contesting for the post of President at the upcoming hockey elections that will be held via video conference on the 31st of May.
A Senior Superintendent of Police, Pushpakumara has a few tricks up his sleeve in order to make Sri Lanka a force to be reckoned with in the region in hockey.
A former First Class cricketer, SSP Pushpakumara also represented Police in Hockey and made several overseas tours. Sri Lanka won the Police Cricket World Cup in Worcestershire in England under his captaincy.
One of his main plans to improve the game in the country is to increase the number of kids playing the game by reaching out to new schools to join the game and sustaining them in the sport without giving up halfway through.
Improving the infrastructure at grassroots levels, making the role of umpires and technical support professional are other areas that have been looked at in a bid to create interest and make improvements in the game. Virtually, this can be termed as the short term goal.
There will be an Elite Pool established comprising 100 children from the age group of 16 to 19 to undergo a long term training program targeting future international events.
Developing the game all around the island will not only help identify players with exceptional skill levels but it also increases awareness on healthy life styles. The player development will be focused on two areas – schools and districts.
The development efforts will be done by qualified coaches with the help from International Hockey Federation and Asian Hockey Federation.
Since all major international events are played on synthetic pitches, the need arises to have more synthetic pitches in the country and at least one turf will be provided to Kandy, Wennappuwa, Jaffna and Badulla. In addition one district in the Southern Province – either Matara or Galle too will receive one. The existing synthetic turf in Colombo is worn out and it will be replaced.
There are ambitious moves to rope in a sponsor who is able to look into the burning issues of the sport.
Although the Ceylon Hockey Federation was started in the year 1933, after 88 years, the Hockey Federation doesn’t have a premises of their own to conduct their daily affairs. One of the priorities of SSP Pushpakumara is to have a permanent office for Hockey and to put up a dormitory for players who come to Colombo from outstations for training. There’s been good support from Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa on this regard.
While the talent in the sport is not lacking, lack of exposure for players at the international arena has resulted in players being not able to compete against the best in the world. Providing the players international exposure is a must and helping them improve their technical and tactical game needs to be looked after along with providing them nutrition.
“It is my firm belief that after cricket, hockey can go onto make the nation’s most successful sport. Hockey is not a contact sport. Like cricket is a sport involving bat and ball, hockey is a sport that involves stick and ball. So the skill levels are almost the same,” SSP Pushpakumara elaborated.
He also intends to establish an IPL like domestic franchise based tournament with the participation of foreign players and he believes that this will create lot of interest on the game. The help of Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa in this regard is highly valued.
Sri Lanka were ranked number four in Asia in the 1960s but currently the team has suffered huge setbacks to be ranked 11th. More recently, the sport has run into problems and a fresh face is needed to address the burning issues of the game. SSP Pushpakumara with a visionary attitude and a desire to work hard is the ideal person to do the job.