Silwala Khurd/ Volleyball
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A backgrounder
As in 2022
Parul Kulshrestha, January 9, 2023: The Times of India
On the face of it, Silwala Khurd has a split personality. Geographically, the village is located in Rajasthan but for all practical purposes it looks like a place in Punjab.
Located 50km away from the Punjab border in Hanumangarh district, a lot of people in Silwala Khurd are Punjabi. With brick lanes and walls, the village looks distinctly Punjabi unlike the typical Rajasthan village where colourful houses with wooden carved gates are usually the norm.
But there’s another thing unusual about Silwala Khurd. A majority of the national volleyball players from Rajasthan hail from here. In fact, this village of 3,000 people has produced 72 state-level and 25 national players till date.
The game-changer
The man who put Silwala Khurd on the volleyball map is Basant Singh Maan, 68, a retired government coach who started the Rajkiya Ucch Madhyamik Vidhyalay Volleyball Academy in 2011. “Before I retired, I was posted in my village. I had always wanted to start an academy. These grounds were filled with wild bushes. I cleaned them, spent some money to set up volleyball courts and never looked back,” says Maan.
It was not an easy task to convince the villagers to send their wards to the academy. Maan called three village meetings to persuade the parents. Some families sent their sons but nobody was willing to send their daughters to the academy.
“I went to people’s houses, met the family members and convinced them that volleyball will make their daughters confident and open new avenues for them. When a few girls started coaching in 2011, they wore salwar kameez. I convinced them to wear shorts and T-shirts. Some girls stitched long sleeves to cover their bodies. It took some time for them to get accustomed to this uniform,” recalls Maan.
The news of girls playing in shorts spread like wildfire. Maan remembers that a lot of men on motorbikes started making the rounds of the academy and would make vulgar remarks.
“The girls and their parents were worried. Many stopped sending their daughters. I told them that they must not get dejected. I said, ‘Let these men make remarks, but the day you win medals, these same men will praise you’,” says Maan.
The evolution of Kavita Suthar, 17, the under-18 national volleyball team captain, is a prime example. “Initially, I was apprehensive. My daughter was wearing shorts, a half-sleeved T-shirt and playing such a sport…it had never happened in our family,” says Subhash Suthar, a farmer. “A lot of people used to taunt us, but guruji pacified us. Now, I’m proud of her.”
Tough taskmaster
Maan’s academy is built on government land but initially he had to spend his own money to develop the courts. There are three volleyball courts — one each for boys, girls and children. Maan, who is a tough taskmaster, starts training students from the age of eight as it is easy to mould them. The morning training session is from 6am to 9am. Then the wards go to school. The hectic evening session is from 3pm to 9pm.
The training is free but the students have to arrange their own equipment, which sports goods companies now provide them at the manufacturing rate. “Many students can’t afford shoes and uniforms, so I spend around Rs 15,000 every month on them,” says Maan.
Every student is different. They have their own strengths, weaknesses, body type and metabolism. Maan prepares a training and diet schedule for each student for 365 days.
“In the schedule, I mention different types of training for every day. After a year, we again repeat the schedule with some modifications. Coaching is an obsession. If we want to win medals, we need to invest in players for decades. It is not short-term work,” says Maan.
Villagers chip in
As the villagers saw the hard work put in by the coach, they helped him out. One donated money for nets, while another built a gym and a third person gave money to instal high-mast lights. Over the years, various district collectors posted in Hanumangarh have provided monetary help to Maan’s academy. Incumbent collector Rukmani Riar has assured that the district administration will provide all necessary help.
“I have met him a couple of times and encouraged the students to perform better. We are here to help coach Basant Singh in every way possible. The state government has recently declared a 2% quota for sportspersons in government departments, which will further encourage students to take up sports,” she says.
Around 14 girls and 24 boys from the academy are part of the state team at various age groups. Three girls and two boys were recently selected for government jobs under the sports quota.
Nisha Meghwal, 13, says that her relatives were against her joining the academy but her mother supported her. “Being a Dalit, I have faced a lot of casteism in school, but in sports there is no caste. I get respect for my talent,” she says.
There are some families where all the children are volleyball players. One such family is the Bhambhu family in which two brothers have nine kids and all of them are volleyball players. Inderjeet Bhambhu, a father of three, says, “I trust coach sahab. Many people in our extended family objected to girls playing volleyball but I ignored them and today, my girls are national-level players. Moreover, due to sports, children are safe from the drug addiction problem that is spreading in the district.”
Adrish Khan, a senior reporter at Rajasthan Patrika , has closely tracked the rise of Maan’s students. “This village came into the limelight in 2016 when Basant ji brought his team to Hanumangarh district-level matches,” he says. “I have seen these players raising the bar day by day. In the recent Gramin Olympics organised by the state government, the Silwala Khurd team won the volleyball championship. It’s time to have a state-level academy in the village to motivate more students to pick up volleyball and also to keep children away from drugs.”
Plan for the future
Maan blames lack of planning for the dismal state of sports in the country. If we want to win more medals at the Olympics, we have to start from the grassroots, he says. “We have hired so many physical education teachers in government schools and coaches in academies who are getting more than Rs 1 lakh salary per month. Just ask them how many of their students have won any state or national medal. There is no planning or dedication nor the government is taking this seriously. Look at China, Brazil and Korea; their volleyball game is unparalleled. If we want to compete with them, we should invest more time,” he says.
According to Maan, another key reason is the Indian parents’ belief that their children should focus only on studies and their lives will be spoiled if they focus on sports. “We are a nation of more than a billion but cannot get five gold medals at the Olympics. Why? Because there is no respect for sportspersons. People do not consider sports a viable career option,” he says.
Students from nearby villages have approached him for coaching but Maan has refused due to lack of time. His motto is quality not quantity.
When asked about the future of the academy, Maan is stumped. After a long pause, he says, “Till I’m physically fit, I will keep working on my players, but I’m not sure what will happen after I’m gone. Coaching is a 24x7 job in which you must invest your heart and soul. If the government wants to continue it, it should send some coach here or else this will all be over.”
