Wed 23 May, 2012
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Ex-Kenya Star Has Plans to Aid Game  x6
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August 22, 2005 
AllAfrica.com, Africa
> Page Views 6253
Anne Njambi
Nairobi
Former Kenya international Jagjit Singh Kular is to help Kenya Hockey Union devise a four-year programme aimed at returning Kenya to the top of the world.
Kular, who is conducting an elite coaching course in Nairobi, was a member of the Kenya team that played in the Mexico and Munich Olympics when Kenya were ranked among the best in the World.
By then Kenya were ranked fourth in the world.
He currently lives in Canada and is one of the few elite coaches involved in the administration of the game in Canada.
He was a member of the team which took part in the Mexicoi and Munich Olympica Games of 1968 and 1972 respectively. He also played in the 1971 Barcelona and 1973 Amsterdam World Cups.
Kular was born in Mombasa in 1943 where he did his elementary education.
He captained Simba Union Club and played for the University of Nairobi.
In India he played for Punjab University, India combined Universities and was among India's top players during his stay there. He won the College Award and Punjab University colours.
However the highlight of his hockey career was capped by taking part in the Mexico and Munich Olympics.
He fondly reminisces about the Munich Olympics with nostalgia.
It was a tournament, he said, they had trained diligently for. They were rated fourth behind India, Pakistan and West Germany and were among the top teams to be watched.
"We should have won. We lost to Spain in a controversial sudden death goal in the semifinals," Kular recalls.
After Munich, Kular and twelve team mates decided to quit as they felt, according to him, that they had played enough hockey.
He then relocated to Canada where he studied physical education and undertook numerous training clinics and is now a Master course conductor.
He is now the executive director of Field Hockey Ontario and the manager of both the senior and junior national teams.
Kular oversaw the introduction of astro turf pitches for the 1976 Montreal Olympics which has revolutionised hockey in the world.
Montreal had been experiencing severe winter prior to the games and there was no time to prepare natural grass pitches for the Olympics. Canada requested for permission from the International Olympics Committee to lay out artificial pitches.
They were asked to ensure all teams trained in Canada to test and get used to the pitches.
As far as Kular can see, he saysb lack of planning is largely to blame for the dropping of Kenya's standards in the game. Kular, however, feels Kenya can come back to the global scene with proper planning.
"We have to plan as to where we are going, set targets and then move," he said.
He says to start with. Kenya needs to reposition itself in Africa and aim to be the top country.
Kular says this shoul;d not be a problem because Kenya still has the potential to regain its place on the global scene.
"From the few games that I have watched, there is a lot of potential in Kenya. The speed is enviable and with speed you can beat any team," he says.
He said that all Kenya needs is to get scientific in their coaching methods.
He says it is high time KHU completed the laying down of astro turf at the City Park stadium.
"No where in the world is international hockey still played on grass or murram. There are no two ways about it, teams have to train on astro turf," he says.
Kular says he is ready to work with KHU to regain the game's lost glory.
Nine coaches were trained for the elite course. They include Peter Kiruma, Michael Omondi, Marie Aran, Fred Masibo, Nguru Maina, Michael Malungu, Peter Githuka, Darvinder Sohal and David Omwaka.
The course will go a long way in aiding the coaches preparing both the men and women's teams for the Africa Cup of Nations to be held in South Africa in October.
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Comments on this article
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Mr Singh
08-23-2005 3:07 am
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Kenyan hockey
Kenya needs astro-turfs initially to make any impact on African and then world hockey. Hockey players around the world are 'born' on astro whereas a player in Kenya would play on asto when they are around 17 and by then it is too late.
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dr.ijaz chaudhry(pakistanihockeywriter
08-23-2005 10:53 am
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it was Barcelona world cup and not Munich olympics
the incident mentioned in above article that Kenya lost to Spain in sudden death happened in semi final of First world cup in Barcelona, SPain( 1971) and not in Munich Olympics of 1972
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Jim
08-23-2005 5:39 pm
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He should be grea for hockey in Kenya. Considering that his home province of Ontario is in te same state. No field and no players playing. All on his watch!
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jaques
08-24-2005 3:12 pm
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Quebec
Jim you don't know about Montreal. We had field hockey in the Montreal area and we also had more artificial turfs than Toronto and Vancouver in the 80s. Mr. kullar ran the show into the ground so there is no more field hockey here for men and women and then your province decided to hire him. Go to Kenya instead of somewhere else in canada.
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Ontario
08-25-2005 8:58 am
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Ya ontario field hockey should be finished soon too..mens team are on the decline, the way i see it there will be only 2 or 3 clubs left in the next 5 years. Field Hockey Ontario can't even get its act together to get one pitch laid down. Soon we will have to play on ice.
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shaaban
09-19-2005 1:00 pm
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Why have we gone so much down??????
I remember some years ago hockey was played in primary schools were the best players were picked up in the provincial team to repersent the provinces in the nationals,this was done every year along with other sports,but these days hockey is no longer played at primary level,i wonder why,this was the place to start brining up players,and many of our former player in the early 70's came up through such games.
During these times schools like Central primary school which to date i belive had the best playing ground in Kisumu,i wonder what it has turned out to be since no more hockey at that level and Kisumu sports ground which also is the best playing ground in Kisumu,i also wonder who is playing the game there now,sometime back i used to read in the pappers that Kisumu was holding inter-esteats games in Kisumu,i wonder if this was true,or the reporter had nothing to report on and had to pick on something,since the last time i was there i was told that nothing had taken place their for sometime,Am still on Kisumu,and this beautiful game,we were at one time the best town(city)in playing the game i wonder what went wrong,most of the good players move to Nairobi,if you look at the number of hockey players that play the game in Nairobi came from Kisumu-i just wonder why they cannot play the game in Kisumu-i do not bleam them but the KHU,This is so beacause KHU,does not encourage the game to be played in other towns apart from Nairobi,In Kisumu we only have one hockey club and yet there are so many very good male and females who can play the game,infact there is no hockey club for ladies-it is about time that sometime has to be done to save this situation,not only in Kisumu but other cities and towns,i wonder if ther is any hockey playing club in Eldorate,there was one in Nakuru,but i wonder if it is still there.so the fellows who are running the game in the country(Kenya)should do something about this-if we are to go back where we were,some many tears back,Thank you.
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