Despite the rustic touch, the very localized tournaments with a huge participation of tribals have always played a key role in grooming most of the State’s sporting legends such as Olympians Sylvanus Dungdung, Manohar Toppo, and Sumrai Tete.
Jharkhand has a great many other stars and long sporting history. But the infrastructure – as elsewhere in India – has failed to utilize its full potential.
In even the most remote villages, children pick up hockey sticks even as they learn to walk and play barefoot. Interestingly, given the lack of resources, it is the firewood that is often used as makeshift sticks and cricket bats, along with bamboo bows and arrows.
Rural sports clubs host tournaments in particular villages, rarely with any external financial or organizational help.
All types of games – from Archery, Kabaddi, and Kho-Kho to team sports such as Football, Cricket, Hockey and Volleyball – are played at these tournaments.
Senior sports journalist and author Subhash Dey explains the lay of the land at rural tournaments. “In the Khassi tournament, the winner or champion team gets a goat instead of medals and trophies or cash rewards. In the Murga tournament, they get chicken,” he says.
“If the organizers have adequate resources, they give Jora Khassi (two goats) to the champion and one goat to the runners-up. These are meant for the grand feast after the games are over,” says Dey adding these tournaments draw huge, enthusiastic crowds from several nearby cities, towns, and villages.
Of late, there is a also a new trend of such tournaments being organised for sports like wrestling, which has become popular owing to the success of wrestlers like Sushil Kumar, Bajrang Punia, Yogeshwar Dutt and the Phogat sisters. Hockey and football remain the most sought after sports in Jharkhand but wrestling too is gradually getting the youngsters interested.
