Nagpur, 23 November 2020: Manish Gour from Nagpur, who was recently awarded the Hockey India Best Technical Official 2019-2020, has stated that he is pleased to see young officials and former players from state and national level showing keen interest in officiating. 

"I began officiating as an umpire in 1992 and moved on from umpiring to technical officiating in 2012. It has been a long journey, but over the course of long term development in the past years, what has been most satisfying is to see the number of youngsters with or without a hockey background showing interest in hockey officiating. I believe this is largely due to the efforts taken by Hockey India. They have made umpiring and technical officiating opportunities & courses available consistently across the country and this also gave me an opportunity to develop myself as an FIH Certified Educator for Technical Officials," stated Gour, who was overwhelmed with the recognition he received from Hockey India for his efforts as a Technical Official.   

With nearly three decades of experience under his belt, Gour who works as a Deputy Station Manager with Central Railways, has been actively involved in educating and preparing young officials for a bigger stage. "Over the past years we have been consistently making complete use of technology to educate and mentally prepare Umpires and Technical Officials to handle various situations that may arise in a match. I feel due to these efforts, Indian officials are very well-equipped to handle the most challenging situations on field. Hockey has evolved over the years and I am very happy to see that with the help of Hockey India, we are able to keep up with changing times," stated Gour who has been Tournament Director at Hockey India 5-a-side National Championships since its inaugural edition in Pune back in 2017. 

He further emphasized that Hockey India with regular domestic events is not only ensuring good exposure for budding players but also for Umpires and Technical Officials. He said, "Five-a-side hockey is something new for all of us. By ensuring annual five-a-side tournaments, Hockey India is ensuring officials get the right exposure too. Due to this exposure some of our officials were able to officiate in International five-a-side tournaments."

Gour highlights that women taking up officiating is a recent phenomenon and he is very delighted to see this new trend. "Earlier, even for women's tournaments men would be officiating. But over the past few years, due to the accessibility to get opportunities at various FIH Courses and regular domestic exposure being provided, the number of women officials have increased 5-6 times.  I believe what our federation has been doing is perfect in terms of providing motivation, and a clear path for officials. By further recognizing officials with awards, it only motivates us to keep doing our best," said Gour, who officiated in six different tournaments in 2019 including the 2nd Khelo India Youth Games 2019 held in Maharashtra, as the Tournament Director.

"Hockey India's efforts have always been to recognise the best performing states, Member Units, Umpires and Technical Officials, and by giving out such recognitions, they are making sure that more and more people will be encouraged to take up these profiles," added Gour.

Talking about how officials have managed to keep in touch even during the pandemic, Gour said, "It has been a difficult period for everyone with no hockey being played at all. But I think what Hockey India managed to do seamlessly during this period is organise regular virtual meetings and workshops which has really helped us all to stay in touch, share ways of how to keep updated about the rules & regulations and remain in the zone to officiate. We have also followed the FIH Hockey Pro League matches in Europe, the various scenarios that came up there and how they handled them have been discussed and analysed within our internal development groups which always helps the officials to keep in touch with the sport we love."