Hockey legend Floris Jan Bovelander’s suggestion that hockey should move away from being played on an artificial pitch surface if we want to see hockey being embraced by many more nations is worthy of serious consideration by the game’s administrators (‘Sport’ – “‘I am into developing new forms & formats’”, December 5). I recollect an interview by another hockey legend, Islahuddin of Pakistan, who spoke of the move by European hockey bodies to impose “the artificial turf only” in the game’s scheme as having sounded the death knell for subcontinental hockey. The charm of field hockey, with its beautiful passes and astute dribbling, has been lost for ever with the introduction of this tailor-made surface. It is now a game with a curved cricket bat. No other major sport has been as tinkered with in terms of its playing surfaces as hockey has. Tennis is played on different surfaces which includes the famed grass courts of Wimbledon. The ICC has never thought of allowing any other surface other than a green turf for official cricket matches. It is so in the cases of football and rugby. Why be so blinkered about hockey?
V. Jagadeesan,
Hyderabad
