India's Asia Cup triumph a small step ahead of bigger challenges
Dipsan Tirkey was just seven when India last won the Asia Cup. Back then, he did not even know what hockey was. Regardless, he joined the rest of his town, Sundergarh, in celebrating the win orchestrated by two Tirkeys — Prabodh, then captain, and Dilip.
It was a subtle initiation to the sport, which would gradually turn into an obsession to emulate his idols. A decade on, he's taken a small step towards that. The latest Tirkey to have emerged from the seemingly endless supply line of technically-gifted defenders from the tribal belt in and around Odisha might not have been as influential as Prabodh and Dilip, but he played a crucial role in India lifting the Asia Cup for the first time since 2007 by beating Malaysia 2-1 in the final on Sunday.
It was a subtle initiation to the sport, which would gradually turn into an obsession to emulate his idols. A decade on, he's taken a small step towards that. The latest Tirkey to have emerged from the seemingly endless supply line of technically-gifted defenders from the tribal belt in and around Odisha might not have been as influential as Prabodh and Dilip, but he played a crucial role in India lifting the Asia Cup for the first time since 2007 by beating Malaysia 2-1 in the final on Sunday.
No comments