By P.T. Bopanna
This year’s Kodava hockey festival hosted by the Muddanda family has become the talk of the town in Kodagu (Coorg) district in Karnataka, for all the wrong reasons.
At the outset, I wish to clarify this article is not meant to target any family or political party. The article is intended to learn from past mistakes and avoid repetition in future.
The finals of the Muddanda Cup created a dubious history of sorts for the number of ministers present at the finals of the tournament held at Madikeri on April 27. The joke was that the number of politicians on the dais gave the impression that it was a convention of the Congress party.
Pandanda Kuttappa (in picture), a retired SBI official who conceived the concept of Kodava family hockey, started the festival way back in 1997 to revive the love for hockey as most of the Kodava youngsters were switching over to cricket.
Kuttappa who was popularly known as Kuttani, had never imagined that one day the festival would help bring unity and bonding in the Kodava community.
Being a staunch supporter of Kodavame (Kodava culture), I was upset to see a non-Kodava dance performance by children. Kodava hockey festival should be a forum to showcase Kodava culture and not some alien culture.
In the past also, I have voiced concern over how the family hockey festival was going the cricket IPL way, where money power held sway. The Muddanda organisers concentrated mainly on getting sponsorship, at the expense of giving priority to the game, sportspersons and Kodava culture.
Of course, there were innovations this time, including the Olympic torch theme, quiz, women hockey 5A side, etc.
Unlike last year when Kundyolanda family created history by securing the Guinness World Record for hosting the largest field hockey tournament, this year Kodavas felt let down by the commercialisation and politicisation of the festival.
