The Hindu : Sport : Lifeline for the state's hockey stars from a Gulf company

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 22, 2005

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Lifeline for the state's hockey stars from a Gulf company

By Stan Rayan

KOCHI, FEB. 21. Life for a hockey player is pretty tough in Kerala. While athletes and footballers sparkle at the Nationals and return home to a warm welcome, rich rewards and job assurances, the hockey player often comes back quietly after the majors.

"Hockey players suffer an insecure future," said P.R. Thejus, the young goalkeeper of the Kerala State champion, Kollam's Sports Authority of India. "Getting a job is a big problem," he said.

But a leading United Arab Emirates company has now come up with an attractive offer for the Kerala hockey stars. Lacnor, a fruit drink major which is part of the UAE-based National Food Products Company with branches in Oman, has selected 27 players to play for its teams in Sharjah, Dubai and Muscat. They will be offered jobs in Lacnor too, with posts ranging from senior supervisors to helpers, depending on the qualifications of the players.

"The courier from Lacnor landed just now. The agreement for the first batch of 12 players, who have passports, has come," said Sunil Emmatty, the Ernakulam District Hockey Association secretary, on Monday afternoon.

"The papers for the others should come as soon as we send their passport details," he said.

"The first batch, includes goalkeeper Thejus and Nithin Bose, a Junior India camper," revealed Mr Emmatty. A good majority of the players are from Ernakulam.

Lacnor's relationship with Kerala began seven years ago.

"They have been taking one or two players to the UAE now and then. But this time, they have decided to take a big batch," said the EDHA secretary.

Hockey is set for a revival of sorts in the Gulf country and the UAE Hockey Committee has decided to start a major league in Sharjah by the end of this month. The league will be a five-month affair and this could be behind Lacnor's move to strengthen its teams.

Two officials from Lacnor, Clifford Mendonsa and Javis Ahmed, came down to Kerala a few weeks ago to interview prospective candidates for vacancies, but unrelated to sport.

"Both are established hockey players too and when we told them that they could select players who could fit in as Lacnor employees too, they were quick to respond.

A few matches were held in Kochi and Thalassery, where Javis hails from, and the players were selected."

With India not keen on sending its cricket team to Sharjah, the UAE made attempts to host hockey matches between India and Pakistan some time ago.

Matches between expatriate Indians and Pakistanis are a big hit in Sharjah and Dubai.

And with a goodly Malayali crowd to cheer them, it will almost be like playing at home for the new stars.

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