Once the pride of India at the Olympics, the hockey team has lost deep in the background. India is now tenth in the world hockey rankings.
Empty stadiums, unhappy players, and a lack of sponsors are just some of the issues that plague India’s so-called national sport, field hockey. But the national hockey team is still determined to put on a good show at the upcoming London Olympics.
Indian hockey has an illustrious Olympic record, bringing rare glory to a nation starved of medals over the years. India won its first hockey gold medal – the country’s first Olympic gold in any sport — at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, the start of a glorious gold medal streak that ran all the way to 1956. That period yielded India six gold medals. In total, the country has won eight Olympic golds, one silver and two bronze medals in hockey.
Those days are long gone, however. India’s hockey team didn’t even qualify for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
For a long time, cricket has been the sport of choice for India’s youth. Hockey has become lost deep in the background. “I remember children playing hockey out in the streets in our time,” says Ajit Pal Singh, a member of the Olympic squad from 1968 to 1976. You never see kids playing hockey on the streets or in parks now. It’s cricket, cricket, cricket.
Indian hockey’s downfall started in the late 1980s. According to Debashis Chatterjee, director of the Indian Institute of Management in Kozhikode, Kerala, the Indian hockey team was slow to adapt to the transition from grass to artificial pitches. The failure of the national team set in motion a vicious cycle, as the sport lost its appeal to spectators and sponsors, and government support dwindled.
The road to recovery has been long and hard. The sport in India has been plagued by an internal power struggle between the two governing bodies, Hockey India and the India Hockey Federation. Their battles to take control of the sport have pushed it to the edge of an abyss.
The International Hockey Federation, the body governing the sport worldwide, in 2009 ordered the Indian Olympic Association (which oversees almost all the major sports played by the country except cricket) to bring men’s and women’s hockey under the ambit of one body or risk losing the rights to host and participate in the 2010 Hockey World Cup.
Following the directive, Hockey India was formed. It now manages men’s and women’s hockey in the country. It is backed by the FIH which considers it as the sole body representing the sport. IHF still exists but is no longer an FIH-recognized body.
Mr. Chatterjee adds that the sport’s authorities in India still fail to make the most of talent from rural areas of the country. He compares Indian hockey to a company that has stopped sourcing raw materials from the best places because it lacks the proper infrastructure.
There are other problems as well. ”The apathy shown by the government toward hockey and other sports, barring cricket, is evident,” says Mir Ranjan Negi, a former India hockey player and national coach.
But with the right approach, there is hope for hockey, says Viren Rasquinha, another ex-player.
“We need to involve the right people, like paid business people, paid professional marketers and ex-players as they know the sport well,” he told India Real Time.
“I want to see raising the standard of coaching in domestic hockey and having quality physiotherapists… these are basic requirements. We are 10 years behind others [countries],” he adds.
The Times of India in February reported that the Ministry of Sports has invested about 180 million rupees ($3.25 million) in Indian hockey ahead of this year’s Olympics. That’s a miniscule amount compared with the money that flows in Indian cricket, which is run by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The BCCI is the world’s most powerful cricket body and can influence the sport globally. The same cannot be said for India’s hockey board.
Earlier this year, Sahara Group, a multi-business conglomerate and sponsor of the Indian cricket team, also reportedly signed a 400 million rupee, five-year sponsorship deal with Hockey India. A company representative authorized to speak on the matter wasn’t available for comment.
Appointing Michael Nobbs as head coach of the national team in 2011 was a positive step for Indian hockey. The 57-year-old, who represented Australia in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and was previously in charge of the Japanese women’s team, has helped rebuild the confidence of players.
“Michael has gelled us into a strong unit that works for one another and the results are beginning to show,” Shivendra Singh, a member of the squad, told India Real Time. Attacking gameplay combined with a balanced team selection of youth and experience helped India top its group during the qualifiers.
India is now tenth in the world hockey rankings. But it has landed in a difficult group at the Olympics, joining the Netherlands (third in the international rankings), Germany (second) and Korea (sixth). Australia currently holds the number one spot in men’s hockey.
India is in the final stages of preparation for the Olympics, with the first match to be played against the Netherlands on July 30. ”We are practicing about six hours a day, every day,” Mr. Singh says.
Physiotherapist David John has also been instrumental in improving the fitness levels of players, leading intensive gym sessions to raise their stamina. Technology is playing a role, with the team training in a simulated low-oxygen environment at its camp in Pune earlier this year. Players’ performances are monitored via recorded training sessions, while opponents are scrutinized on videos.
“For the first time, the team is playing with speed and co-ordination,” says former coach and player Mr. Negi. “We should finish on the podium.”
Edited By Cen Fox Post Team
