"If talent has to be nurtured at the school and university level then it is necessary that the youngsters should be given the opportunity of playing on astroturf grounds at an early stage," Singh said while addressing the inaugural ceremony of the All India Inter University Hockey Tournament (North Zone) last evening at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).
"If we are not able to provide astroturf to a youngsters then it would be unfair to expect them to turn out to be world beaters at a later stage," he added.
He said these were the only two universities in the country which have the facility of astroturf hockey fields and could now play a vital role producing hockey champions.
"If we wish to rise in world hockey then merely appointing foreign coaches is not going to be enough," Singh said.
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He said that he was ready to help AMU in establishing a hockey academy as mooted earlier by the Vice-Chancellor Lt Gen (retd) Zameer Uddin Shah.
"The best players from arch opponents from Pakistan use to treat him with utmost respect and reverence and address him as they would to a maestro," Iqbal said.
He assured the AMU V-C that they would fully cooperate in the proposed project of establishing a hockey academy at the university.