Once celebrated as the “Sports Capital of India,” Jalandhar now finds itself struggling to maintain its once-revered status. The city, which proudly hosted Asia’s first government sports college and Burlton Park—an arena that once staged international cricket and Ranji Trophy matches—has seen its sporting fortunes wane over the past few decades.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Burlton Park was a bustling hub, hosting landmark fixtures including an India-Pakistan Test match in 1983 and India-England One Day Internationals in 1991. However, the emergence of a second cricket stadium in Mohali in 1993 shifted the focus, leaving the historic ground largely abandoned. Today, the once-celebrated stadium is reduced to hosting practice sessions for local youth, its illustrious past now a fading memory.
A visionary plan to revitalize the 70-year-old stadium into a modern sports hub—with an investment of Rs 100 crore—was approved over a decade ago but has yet to materialize. Even the intervention of influential figures such as cricketer-turned-Rajya Sabha MP Harbhajan Singh, who began his journey on those very grounds, has not spurred the long-awaited transformation since his entry into Punjab’s Aam Aadmi Party three years ago.
Parallel to this decline in infrastructure is the transformation of the Government Sports College. Established in 1961 under the leadership of then Chief Minister Partap Singh Kairon, the institution once nurtured hockey legends like Surjit Singh and Harcharan Singh, as well as promising athletes. Today, however, it functions primarily as an academic centre offering undergraduate and postgraduate courses in physical education alongside a postgraduate diploma in yoga—a far cry from its original mandate. One prominent athletics coach lamented, “These are not the courses which our players now require. If they truly aspire to create India’s biggest sports university as announced by Arvind Kejriwal in 2021, they must first invest in top-tier experts and state-of-the-art equipment.”
The repercussions of these lapses are evident in the local sports scene. Experts attribute the decline of 25-time winner Guru Nanak Dev University in the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy standings to the deteriorating standards of sports facilities and training in Jalandhar. “Colleges like HMV College and Lyallpur Khalsa College, which once fed a steady stream of talent into varsity-level competitions, have seen their contribution diminish over time,” noted a well-known sports buff.
Hockey, once the pride of Jalandhar, has also suffered. While the villages of Mithapur and Khusropur continue to produce some of the country’s top hockey players, other traditional hubs have faltered. Sansarpur, a village near Jalandhar Cantonment that once churned out Olympians, has not seen a homegrown Olympian emerge since 1980. Similarly, the Government Girls’ School at Nehru Garden, which once nurtured Arjuna Awardee Ajinder Kaur and Olympian Rajbir Kaur, shuttered its girls’ hockey wing in 2015.
Efforts to revive hockey have been sporadic at best. Veteran players credit the Surjit Hockey Society for its unwavering commitment to grooming talent, yet they caution that much more is needed. “Jalandhar boasts three AstroTurfs at Surjit Hockey Stadium, PAP, and Vajra Corps grounds, but they are not in line with the new international blue standards,” a veteran hockey player explained.
Adding to the challenge, Hockey Olympian and now Congress MLA Pargat Singh highlighted the necessity of focusing on early talent development. “Studies show that the best age to enhance a player’s coordination and agility is between three and eight years. Unfortunately, there is little effort directed toward nurturing talent at this crucial stage,” he remarked.
As Jalandhar grapples with the legacy of its glorious past and the stark realities of a diminishing sports infrastructure, the call for decisive action grows louder. Without significant investments in modern facilities and a comprehensive overhaul of training methodologies, the city risks permanently losing its identity as a cradle of sporting excellence.
