Only a total clean-up of Indian hockey’s shambolic administration can pull the national game out of the pits
I’m writing this piece not as an expert on Indian hockey, but as an avid fan and follower of our National Game. Yes, hockey is our national game, no matter what the cynics say. At the Olympics, I followed India in other disciplines too, some with pride, others along the expected lines of frustration. But really, hockey made my heart bleed. Finishing at rock bottom was a record of sorts.
Of course, I’m familiar with the winning and losing character of sport. That is what makes following the fortunes of one’s country in an event like the Olympics that much more intense and exciting. Much was expected from our archers and some of the boxing hopefuls. But those disappointments didn’t hurt as much as the hockey debacle. Now, where do we start collecting the debris of Indian hockey?
I’m inclined to agree with a very angry Michael Nobbs that this is not the moment to pull down Hockey India. But then, how does one get to the bottom of the ills affecting our national game? Mr. Nobbs may not be very familiar with the deep-rooted politics of the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) and Hockey India or the Indian Olympic Association — he is here on a professional assignment with no guarantee for medals.
My firm belief is that it is the team that makes a coach, not the other way round. All successful coaches have had great teams to handle. John Buchanan and Gary Kirsten readily come to mind. Indian hockey experts swear the best coach in London Olympics was Ric Charlesworth, by many a mile. But all that the Aussies could manage was a bronze, albeit a well earned one.
The excuses at London
I watched just about all the hockey from London. It was a delight to observe the commitment level of teams like Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and Great Britain. Mr. Nobbs admitted his wards were kindergarten stuff in comparison. The Indian defence was non-existent and so were interceptions and deflections. I’ve heard some hockey buffs saying “our boys play far too much of individual game.” If that be the case, surely some form of individual brilliance might have been on display. Sadly, there was no such evidence.
Another view is that our boys peaked too early. Where and when and how? Let us just face it — Indian hockey is in a very confused state of mind and body. The players do not know which parent to listen to — IHF or Hockey India, two rogue bodies whose only interest is self-promotion, not the game of hockey. It is a matter of great shame that IHF and Hockey India are blatantly and most grotesquely working at cross purposes. And neither the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) nor the Sports Ministry has any control over these two warring factions.
Hockey India was the brain child of Suresh Kalmadi when he was still on cloud nine of the Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2010. Then the president of IOA, Mr. Kalmadi could do no wrong, or perhaps he was far too omnipotent to have any opposition. Meek Indian character allowed every sinister move to strangle Indian hockey. The players had no voice, they have never had any — more simply put hockey players have always been pawns in the hands of grossly power hungry hockey officials.
There is a huge part of me which is willing to side with the players; but never with the officials. Narinder Kumar Batra, the Secretary General of Hockey India, made a public apology for the disastrous Indian show from London. One would have thought that was the ideal time for him to not just say “Sorry,” but own up the mess and step down. Heads will roll, but only the players’. Never is any official made accountable.
I’m told a good number of Hockey India officials were in London enjoying themselves while the team was tottering at the bottom of the rankings. Is there a case here for an RTI activist to ask the right questions and give the lay man an idea of the expenses incurred by Hockey India cronies in London?! From where it is now, Indian hockey cannot go down any further. Or perhaps it can — into the grave. But it could look up — provided both the IHF and Hockey India are banished from the scene. Am I being too harsh?! I don’t think so. Tough measures need tough decisions. No one in the IHF or Hockey India would be inclined to take those. We are all too familiar with uproars after every hockey disaster, and then after a while the national anger dies down and the official caravan moves on. This is not the time for an arthroscopy of Indian hockey; there is dire need for a major operation. We have had far too many ad hoc compromises in the running of this game in India. It is time for the Sports Ministry to rope in some renowned ex-Olympians to discover how to uphold the image of Indian hockey and not that of self-promoting officials.
Rediscovering the nurseries
The need of the hour is to rediscover the potential of the nurseries in Bhopal, Lucknow, Sansarpur, Coorg and Mumbai and elsewhere in the country. We need to do this on a war footing without outsourcing our national game to foreigners. It hurts to know the CEO of Hockey India is a lady from Oz — what price National pride?
I have noticed in recent times Indian hockey has expressed the strong urge to follow the ever eager financial model of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). To be honest I find nothing wrong with that strategy, except the governance of cricket and hockey are vastly different. Cricket requires no financial help from the Sports Ministry, while hockey cannot move without generous help from the government.
Money makes the mare go. But that will happen only if there is transparent spending on the actual game. It was recently reported that Hockey India had decided to induct a couple of cricket officials and a TV channel owner into the hockey administrative framework for promotional purposes. I find it all very depressing and revolting — I wonder how long our past, present and future hockey players will continue to tolerate such sub-standard administration of hockey in our country?!
On a brighter note we have to be grateful to the outstanding commitment of players such as Saina Nehwal, Vijay Kumar, Gagan Narang, Yogeshwar Dutt, Sushil Kumar and the Manipuri boxer Mary Kom. We have reasons to be cheerful as the number of medals have doubled since Beijing. But gold remained elusive. Ajay Maken, our Sports Minister is optimistic about 2020.”We can get 25 medals,” he says. Mr. Maken, your self-assessment report is good. It needs to be excellent. Come on, Mr. Maken. Let’s give some priority to sports at the grass-roots level. You are trying your darned best to bring about transformation in various federations. More power to you to clean-sweep IHF and Hockey India in one go.
(Bishan Singh Bedi is a former India cricket captain and ardent fan of hockey.)
Keywords: Indian hockey, national game, India at Olympics, Indian Hockey Federation, IHF
Officialdom and rivalry between IHF and HI have contributed to the lacklustre performance
of India.With these bodies snarling at each other and going for "one upism" the players had
to serve two masters.Each body promoted its own favorites.No coach has full authority on
the players' training if contrary instructions are issued by bodies running this sport.Prima
donnas in the team,with officials to back them, do not feel the need to exert themselves
secure in the fact that they have godfathers sitting above protecting them.Both these
bodies should be disbanded and replaced with one body consisting of ex-Olympians who
have experience of what playing at the highest level means.The babus manning the hockey
bodies are clueless but want power and perks.
Like how tennis is played in clay, grass and synthetic, Hockey should
have atleast retained two versions, but I am sure the Europeans were
fed by the dominance of the India which they hate to the very extent,
they came up with this plan to have turf only. Otherwise definitely
turf and grass would have existed today. Just think about it, the
Europeans have turfs courts in their schools, can we even imagine
that? It is very important on which surface a kid learns his hockey,
that style will stick with him forever, it absolutely nearly
impossible to change that style. It is very sad that Grass hockey does
not exists today, that has more artistic flavour to it, not the fast
hockey played on turf, Hockey audience would have increased many fold
if the grass hockey would have been preserved thus far, it is
beautiful to watch the skill work and continuous passing game in a
slow steady manner rather than high speed action in turf which
sometimes does not give the audience any clue.
I am ashamed at Ajay Maken's comment, he aims for 25 medals in 2020.
What he should do is aim at a corruption free sports administration and
leave the playing to the sportspersons and if I were in his place I'd
hope to win them all rather than just 25. And IHF and Hockey India
should be disbanded tout de suite.
Ric Charlesworth(RC) was willing to coach India but the officials saw it fit to give
him a merry-go-round dance.
Nobbs is the right man for India now but no shame in eating the humble pie by
asking RC on advising how India gets back up. He has said that he is looking for a
less taxing assignment so that he can dedicate some time to his family.
For God's sake sort out this IHF/HI mess. The FIH gave India an easy group to
qualify for London, so let's not abuse their goodwill on this. It will not last.
The players must be exposed to high-intensity hockey. If anyone calls himself a
serious hockey player, he must ply his trade in the EHL. So let the boys go out and
learn in the harsh world, the real sacrifices it takes to win at the world stage.
Better to have lost fighting to AUS, NED & GER 1-0 than beating France 8-0.
The World Cup is 2 years away and Rio is 4 - plenty of time. It's high time the
officials show India a roadmap of how they plan to get India up and running again.
The playing surface may have something to do with the decline and fall of Indian hockey but it is just a small part of it. Up to the 80s, the skill and stickwork of Indian (and Pak) players made them formidable. But the Europeans made up for their earlier lack of skills with speed, strength, accuracy and stamina. They perfected the art of penalty corners and strokes. The artificial turf gave them a predictable platform on which to hone these skills. They adopted a scientific approach to the game while we continued to bask in past glory and play exactly the same way as we played in the 40s,50s and 60s. A coach like Charlesworth of Australia or the German coach is an example of someone who is immersed into all aspects of the game including psychological. They know how to take apart the opposition and impart these techniques to their players. We do no such thing. Our approach is ad hoc. This is the essential difference, I believe.
Mr. K. Prashant: You are partly right about not blaming officials. After all, it is the
team that has to be good. However, in our country, our sports officials are not just
passive bystanders. They interfere, usually in a destructive fashion, they encourage
cronyism, engage in fraudulent practices, trying to make personal gains by
handing contracts to their friends or selling off equipment meant for athletes. And
this is not just true for hockey. If Indian athletes win, it is despite and not because
of the officials.
That being said, it is no surprise that he produce no superior athletes. No parent
encourages their wards to play sports. Of our one billion people, 80% or more are
not adequately nourished and cannot become athletes. The general apathy
pervades our entire system.
In the amateur days, all countries had lousy sport administration and we won. The
rest of the world has moved on, but we are still stuck in the 1930s-40s. What else
do you expect?
THANKS HINDU AND BEDI - The article is an open letter to remove politicians from all sports.We know what happened to our systems after nationalisation.it was not the programme but the vile politician who damaged/damages every thing.Why should the nation need a sports minister when all they do is to retard things.We have sports ministers/ministry at national and state level but noy at Panchayath/ town levels level where itr is actually needed to involve people.
i know that it is difficult to excel in field sports where extreme energy level has to be maintained ; something that can be achieved only from a well nourished baby.A poorly fed mother cannot produce a strong child.We will produce world class sports person in large numbers only when our girl child is fed and nourished well
Things change and we should also ... Time to make someother sport as national game. Have been in chennai for the past 4 years, never saw a kid going to ground with hockey stick in hand, mostly seeing them go with cricket bat, some with shuttle racket / Basket Ball / Volley Ball. Not sure if schools try to promote hockey, if not why all these fuss ?? Lets move on.
Where there is money, there is a way. We all know the fact that India does not have bouncy pitches but the cricket team is still able to cope up with this factor abroad and still stay in business. Why is this not the same with other sports? How much money will a professions hockey player in India retire with, as compared to a cricketer? I think the issue at hand here is entirely different. The government should take a step in pouring money into these sports. One option could be giving tax incentives to companies sponsoring Olympians, athletes, etc to make sure the flow of money is into all forms of sports.
Why are you blaming the officials.They cannot make the team win any matches.Talk about improving facilities for the practice, the coach etc and introduce new tournaments at state level to encourage budding talent!
This incessant attack on the officials is just a sidetrack and whatever changes that occur in the officialese is just going to be an eyewash.
@Nagaraja blaming the turf for India's Hockey debacle is a lame excuse, one which cannot be used about 30 years after the change happened. India did win an Olympic gold in 1980 on this turf, so we can do it right? The fact is as Graham has pointed out above that astroturf is not used at grassroots level. Even my school hockey team used to play on grass. All that needs to change to have any chance for us at international level. At the moment, the national team lost not because of lack of speed or strength, they didn't even have their basics right. There's no excuse for that. This has been going on for so long that I have lost all hope.
We can keep cribbing about the artificial surface and India's inability to adapt to it. Nothing will be gained by such wailing. Two generations of hockey players have come and gone, playing hockey on artificial turf, and we can't keep on complaining about it. Hockey on astro turf was first played in Olympics in Montreal, 36 years ago! Do we still need time to adjust? All international tournaments are played on astro turf; all major domestic tournaments are played on astro turf; all National championships are played on astro turf; all bilateral series are played on astro turf. Indians play on it throughout the year. There must be around 50 astro turfs in India.In Delhi are four. In Gurgaon we have one. All major Punjab centres have synthetic turfs. We do need more. But we can't say we don't have enough and that is why we are losing.
Indian and Pakistani hockey died because they couldn't put up a
unified voice. Why?
In the late 70's and 80's there was a movement by Australia and the
European countries to shift to Astroturf. India and Pakistan did not
have turf to play on. There was a proposal to switch to a Tennis type
of format, clay, grass and turf tournaments. India and Pakistan had
they been united could have had this format introduced. But they did
not act and IHF switched to Turf.
I have played on turf and grass/clay. It is a completely different
game. Most Indians don't play on turf at school and university
levels, how can you expect them to suddenly compete.
If India is serious, it should host Clay and Grass tournaments, and
work with IHF to open such tournaments.
No one wants to see a 1 billion people lose interest in Hockey.
I read the entire article and not a word about the most importent factor which has caused India to be at the bottom of the table. That is the surface on which Hockey is played. Indians were champions when Hockey was played on grass and nothing but natural grass.The ground was prepared every time the game was played in India to suit the players. Now that natural grass is replaced by artificial turf the Indian players are unable to cope up to the skills of the foreigners. I don't remember when artificial green replaced natural grass.
The europeans have better physique,higher dribbling speed and quickness in converting penalty corners. Their passing is superior,their aiming is more accurate. India should demand going back to natural grass. There will be world wide protest I am sure.
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