The referee's whistle echoes in Miledih village and 32 players converge around the centre line, gazing intensely at each other. West Singhbhum district's Tokad village is playing Khunti district's Lipidih and the two teams form semi-circles on either side of the line, drawn with chalk powder. Two villagers stand on this line as they engage in their brief stare-down.

"The villagers are part of the organising committee of the tournament. They will throw out any player from a different village. This is to make sure the teams do not bring along players from villages other than their own," Sashibhushan Mundu whispers from the sideline, never taking his eyes off the players. "They have been playing against each other for so many years and are best equipped to catch the other team cheating," he says. Sashibhushan is part of the 15-member entourage that is accompanying the blue-clad Tokad team.

There are no cheats in this match, so the referee nods to Soma Hembrom, the timekeeper for the day. The whistle blows. Tokad team's Jithen Mundu's hockey stick slaps the worn, white cork ball. The second match of the four-day 'Hockey Tournament Organised by the Youngsters of Bandhgaon Panchayat on the Occasion of Republic Day'an impromptu name that Soma comes up with laterhas begun.

Orissa's Sundergarh and Jharkhand's Ranchi have been credited with being the cradles of hockey in the eastern part of the country. All over the jungles of the 65,000-sq-km Chota Nagpur plateau, barefooted villagers carrying locally-made sticks have been kicking up a storm in dustbowl-maidans such as this one in Miledih. These are murga-khasi (translation: chicken-goat) tournaments, the mention of which brings smiles and descriptions. Following a tradition whose beginnings none rememberlike the many hockey tournaments across villages in Khunti, Simdega and Gumla districts of Jharkhandthe winner of the 16-team competition in Miledih, the West Singhbhum village that is hosting the tournament, will get a goat along with a Rs 2,000 cash prize.

"Everybody thinks hockey is played a lot in Ranchi, but players only come here to make use of its facilities. All of us picked up the game from our villages in Khunti, Simdega and Gumla," says Sylvanus Dung Dung, 66, who was part of the Indian team that won gold at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

Sylvanus, for instance, won goats and fish and chicken as prize money during the murga-khasi tournaments he played in Simdega district before winning the Olympic gold. "The prize was whatever was in season; even grains. We made sticks from bamboo, even the ball was made of bamboo. We went to school with the hockey stick and played during tiffin. We would play after class. On Sundays, we played all day," says the right-back, who retired as an Indian Army Captain.

The dehati hockey stick has evolved since: bamboo is no longer used. Instead, the wood of a tree known in Mundari language as 'tiril' is tempered and polished. The result can confuse the untrained eye.

This enthusiasm for hockey is reflected in the way Ranchi has taken enthusiastically to its Hockey India League franchise, the Rhinos. Even as the Bangalore franchise went unsold in the five-team league, Ranchi is set to host both the semi-finals (on February 9) and the final (on February 10). Tickets have been sold out for the team's first three home-matches, with people from the state getting to watch Simdega boy Birendra Lakra and Germany's Moritz Fürste, the reigning International Hockey Federation Player of the Year, donning the red-and-yellow jersey of the Rhinos.

Ranchi's Jaipal Singh Stadium (named after the Khunti-born Oxonian who captained India to its first Olympic hockey gold medal at the 1928 Amsterdam Games) remained packed even on January 18when the Rhinos played their first home-matchdespite the Indian cricket team being in town for the first One Day International in Ranchi's new stadium.

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The brilliance of the astroturf is a world away from the BYOB (Bring Your Own Ball) tournament of Miledih. "Each team brings a ball. We supply another if one cracks," explains Soma Hembrom, the time keeper, even as a Tokad defender is injured by the ball's uneven bounce. Someone runs over with a five milligram tube of Moov ointment for the player's split lower lip. Moov has the pride of place in the first-aid kit, flanked by a 60 millilitre bottle of Dettol and a roll of cotton.

Some of these things are, in fact, a luxury. "When we played khasi tournaments, there were no watches in our villages. Somebody would be asked to walk between two marked points with short, measured steps. When he reaches the first point, it would be half-time. In some cases, we would just erect a stick on the ground and use it as a sundial," says the 1984 Los Angeles Olympian Manohar Topno who is now the coach at Khunti's residential coaching centre. His son Sumit Topno is a defender with the Rhinos.

Externalities like the goat and Moov are deceptive: Tokad and Lipidih, the teams playing today's match in Miledih village, play with composite-material sticks, each of which costs almost as much as the prize money itself.

Tokad has among its ranks Abraham Mundu, a former Services player. Abraham, 53, retired as a Subedar Major in 2008, not before representing Services in the 1988 National Games. "I am now an all-rounder of sorts. I play in almost every position available, I also coach them in my own way," he says.

The team trains from 6 to 7.30 every morning at the Tokad village ground. Tokad, located about five km from the Khunti-West Singhbhum border, is known to have the presence of left wing extremists like most villages in the region.

Most standard field hockey rules apply in khasi tournaments too. There are 16 players in each team, with 11 on the field at a time. "If anything, our rules are more relaxed. We give long corners where international rules specify a short corner, and short corners where rules require a penalty stroke to be awarded," says Soma. There are two halves of 20 minutes, with a five-minute break separating them. There is a referee in each half, with a spotter placed near either goalpost to confirm goals. Villagers volunteer to patrol the sideline and retrieve balls that go beyond the boundary.

Tokad, though far superior to Lipidih, manages to waste a bucketful of chances and wins only by a lone, scrappy goal. At the team-talk after the match, the coach-mentor in Abraham is not pleased: "Use your head, think Don't stop till the referee whistles The centre-forwards should keep drifting."

Jithen Mundu, 22, just stood there, taking it all in. Tokad's centre-half and number 13 has been through tough times before and his return to play for goats and knick-knacks showed where the system has developed cracks. Jithen is a product of the Khunti residential coaching centre, which accommodates students from class VI onwards. The four such coaching centres in the state are attached to schools and the Jharkhand government has no facility to train students beyond school. "I was 12 years old when I started taking hockey seriously. I joined the Khunti centre when I was 14, but then realised that I would have to find a different academy after school. So I joined the Rourkela academy in Orissa, where Michael Kindo (Arjuna awardee and member of the 1975 World Cup winning team) coaches," says Jithen.

He joined the Rourkela centre in Orissa at 16 and left it when he was 21, thus joining a long line of Jharkhand players who had to cross over to the neighbouring state after failing to secure a government job under the sports quota immediately after school, one sure way to keep playing. Jithen, future uncertain, now plays for the West Singhbhum district team.

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Mariam Champia, too, will soon know her fate. The former student of the Bariatu residential coaching facility recently turned 18, making her eligible for a Central government job. Since the academy is attached to the Bariatu senior secondary school, she will have to leave soon. "Five of our students passed their class XII in 2012. The others have left after joining various Railway Zones. Mariam is a promising player, so we decided to make alternative arrangements for her till she is employed," says Pulkhariya Nag, coach at the Bariatu centre, talking on behalf of a sulking Mariam.

The Bariatu facility, located within Ranchi city limits, was started in 1975 by the unified Bihar government. For a long time, it was one of the fewif not the onlysuch centres for women in the country, producing almost all of Jharkhand's women's hockey internationals. Current India player and former captain Asunta Lakra, the Indian team's coach Sumarai Tete and national selector Savitri Purti are among Bariatu's alumni.

A job, or 'service' as the girls and boys call it, is the passport to all things good. Railways is the principal recruiter, with the Army and the state police chipping in. No coach remembers the last time one of their wards got a Jharkhand government job.

"Jharkhand has the quantity, but it needs to do more to bring its players to a higher quality. They need to give these players jobs and money. In Haryana, we have had instances of players leaving central government jobs to join the state service. Otherwise, Jharkhand will continue to witness migration," says K. Arumugam, the Delhi-based editor of stick2hockey.com.

Hockey, then, has become an agency of upward social mobility. According to Arumugam, it has always been so: "Hockey flourished around the British cantonments, with Christian missionaries taking it into the jungles to attract youth. The promise was that it would change lives. Except for one player, I think everybody who has represented India at the national level from this region has been a Christian." He speculates that there must have been a game in Chota Nagpur similar to hockey in many respects, allowing tribals to adapt to the sport easily.

All this ambition and drive give these players an extra edge. "Our players tend to be more responsiblethey stay back or track back as soon as the team loses the ball. We have faster players who are skilful on the ball, they dribble and dodge better," says Pulkhariya, coach at the Bariatu centre. The result, however, is that most Jharkhand players end up being defenders at the national level.

What pushes them back further is the sense of inferiority that comes from being unable to communicate with the other players. "When we go for national events, we usually stay silent because of our language problems, while the others go about talking smartly," says Neha Topno, a forward who trains at the Bariatu centre and is in her class X. Her coach Pulkhariya interjects: "They mistake our self-effacing nature for dumbness."

That sense of inferiority is furthered by the knowledge that they take to the field with second-rate equipment. Even as players in khasi tournaments play with sticks made of composite material, the trainees of Bariatu and Khunti represent the state in tournaments with worn-out wooden sticks. At the state government centres, which accommodates 25 players each, there has been no replenishment of kits in the last three years.

There was a time when what is today's Jharkhand contributed heavily to various Indian teams, especially women's. But today, of the 33 players each listed as part of the Indian senior teams on the Hockey India website, only Asunta Lakra, Vandana Kataria and Birendra Lakra are from Jharkhand. Among the 66 in the junior teams, there are only seven from the state, all girls.

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Despite this, girls and boys emerge from the forests, armed with just a hockey stick. The game still holds out the promise of a better life: religious enlightenment and its perks have now been replaced with freedom from fear. "The state government has opened 106 day-boarding hockey centres across Jharkhand in the hope that the game will wean away youngsters from Maoism," says Manohar Topno, even as he oversaw a training session of day-scholars at the Khunti centre.

There, among the day scholars, was Manoj Munda, barefooted. The 13-year-old class VIII student, a right half, flitted and weaved, his new white jersey contrasting against his dark skin. "I just walked in here and started playing one day. There is no school near my village and my parents cannot take care of us, so all of us siblings have been sent to stay with different relatives in town. I was in class V and was very interested in the game. I would pass by this ground every day, and one day, I just brought a stick and started playing. The coach liked me, and took me in," he says, fidgeting with his hockey stick. As it turns out, it was borrowed. "Mine was a local stick, which broke. One of the boys here had an extra one, and he lets me borrow it," he says.

During his three years of training, Manoj has eased into a cycle: "My shoes last about eight months, after which I go barefoot for about three months. This time, though, with the stick broken, I don't know when I can get new shoes." But then, Manoj has a simple ideal. There are no Hockey India League dreams there. No Railway jobs, either. It's all about him and his stick: "I want to play my whole life."

Jharkhand's HALL OF FAME

Jaipal Singh Munda (1903-1970), captain of the Indian men's hockey team at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. His team won gold, beginning an unbeaten Olympic streak that lasted till 1956 and yielded six gold medals.

Michael Kindo (b. 1947) was born in Simdega and was part of the bronze-winning team at the 1972 Munich Olympics. He was awarded the Arjuna Award the same year.

Sylvanus Dung Dung (b. 1947), a right-back, was born in Simdega. The Army helped Dung Dung raise his game, relieving the message-runner from his tasks so that he could play. Was part of the team that won gold at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

Savitri Purti, born in Khunti, was the first Jharkhand representative in the women's national team, playing from 1983 to 1990. Purti is now General Secretary of Hockey Jharkhand and is a national selector.

Manohar Topno, a defender, was born in Khunti. He joined the Khunti centre in 1975, but left to join the Army. He represented India at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Since his retirement, Manohar has become a coach at the Khunti residential centre.

Sumarai Tete (b. 1979) is the coach of the national women's hockey team. The Bariatu-centre alumnus captained the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games team, which won silver.

Kaanti Baa (b. 1979) was born in Simdega and played at the Bariatu centre. The full-back was part of the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games gold-winning team.

The Lakra siblingsBimal, Asunta and Birendrafrom Sindega have all played for India. Asunta and Birendra are part of the women's and men's teams, with Asunta being a former captain. Birendra, a halfback, plays for Ranchi Rhinos.

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