Talking of a sporting legend

They had the unique achievement of brother and sister captaining the country in the same sport

To speak of Zohara Jumar is to speak of a sportswoman with exceptional talent and versatility. At some time or the other, she has played Netball, Badminton, Table Tennis and done athletics at a high level. However, this old girl of good Shepherd Convent Kandy represented her country in basketball and hockey, both of which she did not play in school as it did not have the facilities.

It would be akin to “painting the lily and gilding refined gold” to say that Zohara is well-built. Indeed her strength enabled her to excel in the throws – putt shot, discuss and javelin. She won the first place in the javelin event at the Junior Athletic Nationals back in 1963.

Hockey was obviously her main sport and she took to it in 1968. Within a matter of months she was in the Sri Lanka team. The next year, she was made captain. She led the team for eleven long years, excelling in her favoured position of left half.

Sri Lanka played in the first ever Asian Women’s Hockey tournament held in India in 1968 under her leadership. This was repeated at the second Asian tournament held in Malaysia. Sri Lanka was placed third. Her captaincy ended after the women’s world cup tournament in India in 1979.

Zohara’s hockey travels have taken her to India, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Zohara’s leadership enabled Sri Lanka to be placed second in the Pesta Sukan tournament held in Singapore in 1974. She was recognized for her ability and performance with the curved stick when she was picked for the rest of Asia against the Asian champions – India. Zohara’s forte was the conversion of short corners. Her full-blooded hits brooked no stopping. Moreover the placement was very accurate, too.

The names of her colleagues in the Sri Lanka team roll off her tongue. Among the more exalted are Jay Malini Bandaranaike, Carmen Impett (goalie), Pushpa Aramudali, Khemangani Aluvihare, Chandrika de Silva, Valerie Lieversz and Barbara Arunachalam.

She is dismayed by the depths to which hockey standards have fallen. Teams led by her overcame Malaysian and Singaporean teams by wide margins, Then, Sri Lanka beat Nigeria, Kenya, and drew with West Germany in the seventies. That’s a far cry from the situation today when our team’s will be hard-pressed to offer decent opposition to these very same teams.

Just how low our standards are was made evident a few months back when our women hockey players conceded loads of goals to teams from Korea and Japan. Something that is very significant is that there is no proper body to organize women’s hockey. In the past, the country had a whole host of able administrators of the caliber of Irene de Soysa, Gayathri Fernando, Jayanthini Pathmaraja, Dru Arasaratnam, Bernice de Saa Bandaranaike (president, when the Mini Asian Tournament was held in Colombo in 1976) and Trixi Jayasuriya.

The situation regarding tournaments is very similar. It’s a chicken and egg situation with a paucity of clubs and tournaments. At the moment, hockey-playing girls can only look forward to the nationals. In the sixties and seventies, there were the Wynne – Jones, Bill Ingram, Cyril Reeves and Vaithialingam tournaments in addition to the annual up country – low country encounter.

Talking of the men, Zohara is of the opinion that their standard is also not all that good. The lack of tournaments is also a factor. But the greater danger is that parents loath to send their children for hockey, preferring, instead, glamour sports such as cricket and rugger. Zohara firmly believes that the federation should be more active and that respected veteran players and officials such as Dennis de Rosayro and Jayampathi Perera should play a greater role.

Zohara belongs to a hockey family where her three brothers all played the game with distinction. One of them, Iqbal, represented Sri Lanka for ten years and also captained the national side. Is this the only instance where brother and sister have captained the national teams in the same sport, or is there another?