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OFFTRACK: KODAGU, KARNATAKA

Sticking Together

In an effort to stay together, Kodavas battle it out on a hockey field

By Stephen David

The Nellamakkada Hockey Cup 2001 is not the Olympics, but it may soon find a place in history. The Guiness Book of Records flew down a representative to Ammathi village in Kodagu, Coorg, about 270 km from Bangalore, to document the tournament. In the fray this year were 226 teams, a record in itself, but what is more remarkable is that each team comprised members of a Kodava family.

The Kodavas are a small community of about 3.5 lakh people. Around 86,000 of them still live in their traditional homeland of Coorg. They are dwindling in numbers, and the pressures of modern living have diluted the sense of community. In 1997, some hockey-loving Kodavas under the leadership of banker P.M. Kuttappa hit upon the idea of a hockey tournament for families to bind their people together. The game has long been popular among the Kodavas; 40 local boys have played for India in the past decade alone. Kodavas like to say every community member is born with a gun in one hand and a hockey stick in the other. In the first tournament hosted by the Pandanda family, 60 teams participated. By the following year word had spread and 116 teams entered. The number of entries has continued to grow almost exponentially.

The recent fall in coffee prices in this land of coffee growers may have dampened spirits, but it didn't seem to hit the tournament, to the utter relief of the hosting family, the Nellamakkadas. This year's record number of entries included some teams with star players. Former India player K.P. Poonacha donned the colours for eventual winners Koothanda. Len Aiyappa, a current national team player, played for his family, the Balachandas. Another India player, Amar Aiyamma, was with the Palanganda family team. Arjuna award winner and former India goalkeeper A.B. Subbaiah played for the Anjaparuvanda family. With players of such calibre around, winning matches was not easy.

Since the tournament began on April 20, matches were played daily at two specially created stadia in Ammathi village between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Food stalls sprang up near the venue and spectators from nearby villages thronged the grounds to cheer their teams. Geetha Bopiah, a coffee planter who drove from Harihara village 45 km away, says families from all over the 4,017 sq km area of Coorg come together for this event. Interest is growing: for the finals on May 13, an estimated 30,000 people turned up to watch the Koothanda family score a 3-1 victory over the Cheppudira family. The 1,000th goal of the tournament was also scored in this match, another record of sorts.

"The tournament is something very special for us," says Subbaiah. "It gives us a special bonding among our community members, not just hockey players." The sentiment draws all sorts. Organising committee president N.T. Ganapathy, a sprightly 70-year-old, says fathers and sons play together. Grandfathers and grandsons is more like it: the oldest player was B. Nanaiah, 76, the youngest was an eight-year-old from the Bachinadianda family. "It is a bit scary having to play with youngsters but at the same time it is a nice feeling," says K.N. Subbaiah, 57, the Kotera family stalwart.

There were 4,520 players and officials involved in the tournament. Logistics and management are not easy in a championship where numbers run to such excesses. The budget of Rs 15 lakh may seem large for a countryside jamboree, but not for an event this size. Even that was difficult to come by; sponsors backed out and there was little government support. "People seem to have forgotten that hockey, not cricket, is the national game," says tournament committee chairman N.U. Mohan Aiyappa.

That does not appear to have thwarted him or his fellow-organisers. "The main objective of this hockey festival is to bring the nearly 800 Kodava families together," says Aiyappa. They are getting there: 226 is more than a fourth of the families. The concept that the family that plays together stays together seems to be working.

MetroScape

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The Madhya Pradesh governor orders a CBI inquiry into a land allotment by the chief minister to the Nai Duniya group, kicking off a constitutional crisis. INDIA TODAY Special Correspondent Neeraj Mishra reports in
Conflict Of Interest.