Tata sets up Naval Tata Hockey Academy in Jamshedpur

Representational Pic

Tata Trusts and Tata Steel have joined hands to make a foray in hockey with the establishment of the Naval Tata Hockey Academy (NTHA), a high performance residential training facility, here.

The Academy for 14 to 16 year-old boys, was inaugurated on the eve of the Founder's Day celebration on March 2 by Tata Trusts Chairman Ratan Tata.

The Academy was established 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 named in honour of Naval H Tata to commemorate his contribution to the game in India, his achievements as an outstanding sports administrator and passion for sports.

Naval Tata held prestigious positions and was the President of the All India Council of Sports (AICS), President of the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) for 15 years and Vice Chairman of the International Hockey Federation (FIH).

The Naval Tata Hockey 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 26 boys from villages of Simdega, Khunti and West Singhbhum districts to begin with.

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.

In due course, the Academy is slated to train and select 26 girls from Jharkhand and transform them into hockey stars of tomorrow.

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.

Recognising the importance of receiving quality education, all the players will be admitted to schools as well and provided personal tutors to achieve academic excellence.

Tata Trusts and Tata Steel, have roped in a Dutch architect firm to conceptualise and design the Academy.

"Hockey is an extremely popular sport in the Eastern part of the country and the candidates being trained in the academy are budding talent from tribal hinterland (Khuniti & Simdega of West Singhbhum) of Jharkhand. We hope to produce world beaters at the international stage from this Academy', said Sunil Bhaskaran, Vice President Corporate Services, Tata Steel.

Catch up on all the latest sports news and updates here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates