Who is playing games?

Hockey by chalaki (hockey by intrigues) had been an adage that lost its relevance long time ago. Rather, those who tried to fox their opponents by finer intricacies of the game were punished not only with free hits against their sides but were at time even green or yellow cads. But now this trait associated with the game has traveled from players to the organizers, including the International Hockey Federation, Hockey India, the Indian Olympic Association and the Organising Committee of the 12th World Cup.

From entry to the Major Dhyan Chand National Hockey Stadium, the venue of the competition, to free interaction with participating teams, team officials, technical officials and even access to the media centre was delayed till last day. Interestingly, it was all blame game. FIH, HI and the IOA putting the entire blame on the security forces, including the police for all chaos that gave this mega event, second time in India since 1982, a foul start. The FIH chief even tried to get away with it by saying he had problems in getting into the stadium.

None was ready to talk about tickets. The online portal gave no indication about VIP tickets that many of overseas Indian hockey fans wanted to buy. Many of them landed here to be frustrated further. Tickets are no more available. Further availability of tickets, they feel, would depend upon the outcome of India-Pakistan match. If India wins, tickets will remain available only at a premium. Otherwise, there would be no takers. It is why they say that final is being played on the opening day of the fortnight long tournament.

Among those unable to get pass, invite or tickets has been German-based orthopaedician Joginder Singh. He has come here with his German wife, daughter and son-in-law with the fond hope that his long association with the team as a doctor would be recognized. In spite of his best of efforts and contacts, both in HI and the IOA, he felt disappointed and started considering returning to Germany even before the tournament got a day old.

Equally disappointed was MS Binepal and his son, Yitender who came all the way from Kenya to watch the World Cup. They had been trying for a month to get VIP tickets of Rs 1000 each for initial matches and Rs 1500 tickets for the final. So far they have got none.

Stan and Margaret Salazar from Australia, too, have a similar story to tell. They had been following Indian team in World Cups and Olympics. But home ground experience had been too “awful” for them to remember any longer.

The venue has been converted into a security forces citadel. Entrance for media has a single x-ray machine. Imagine a couple of hundreds of journalists, including cameramen going through long waits for getting their equipment screened. Even coins had to be left in a bucket at the security check counter.

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Where have all the tickets gone?

While hardcore hockey spectators struggle to get tickets from the publicized ticket counters of a nationalized bank, a chain of coffee shops and a few other centres, there appears to be a free flow of tickets inside the historic Major Dhyan Chand National Hockey Stadium. Some influential members of the Indian Olympic Association as well as Hockey India have been making a frantic effort to win back those who felt slighted by their earlier total “indifferent attitude”.

Intriguingly, a fairly large number of Olympians and internationals, including some national awardees, can be seen watching the games from the 100-rupee stands. Some of these players, including former national coach Sukhvir Grewal, and several national stars, including Syed Ali, Jagdeep Singh Gill, Arvind Chhabra and Aslam Sher Khan, preferred not to run after those in control of either the IOA or Hockey India for invites to watch matches. Instead they bought tickets of Rs 100 each. Even some of the great friends of Indian hockey overseas are provided tickets by Sukhvir Grewal and group.

Sukhvir Grewal and Director of Punjab Sports Department have brought a group of their young trainees and some coaches to watch the World Cup games. They have been provided accommodation at a nearby place of worship.

Grewal is also organizing for these youngsters and coaches one-day interaction with former national coach of both the US and Canada, Shiv Jagday, so that they can understand minute intricacies, strategies and game plans of different teams playing here.

Shiv Jagday, who comes from Ludhiana, is now Consultant to Field Hockey Canada.

Joginder Singh, doctor from Germany, who has been voluntarily accompanying Indian hockey team on its overseas assignments for more than three decades, had finally got his due. He and his family got special invite from the organizers of the World Cup thanks to the IOA Secretary-General Randhir Singh.

On Monday when the nation was celebrating Holi, New Zealand and Canada, only teams to have Indian expatriates, played the first game. While New Zealand has Priyesh Bhana, who scored the first goal for his team, and Arun Panchia, in its team, Canada has Ranjeev Deol and Sukhwinder Singh Gabbar. The coach of the Canadian team, Shiaz Virjee, is also of Indian origin. Incidentally, one of the umpires for this game was Chandigarh’s Satinder Sharma who in the last World Cup Qualifying Tournament got the golden whistle. Also on the Judges Table for this game was Indian Moghul Mohamed Muneer.

Only other person of Indian origin playing for team other than India is Balwanth Shanyl of South Africa.

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How much Indian is World Cup in India

In 1982 when India played host to the fifth World Cup Hockey Tournament on the lushful green grassy playfields of Bombay Hockey Association Stadium, it had a lot, other than Indian hospitality, to offer to both players and officials.

Intriguingly, India has not only lost its supremacy in the sport but also in equipment, and technical conduct of major hockey events.

Now 29 years later when the World Cup has returned to the country, the Indian touch to the event has almost gone. But the most important component that can win any nation any major sporting event these days is the sponsorship it can offer. And India has plenty of sponsors. Only visible Indian touch to the 12th World Cup has been its money with Hero group, Steel Authority of India (SAIL), Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, and a few others as its major sponsors.

Hero has been the title sponsor.

In 1981-82, since there were hardly any TV stations in this part of the world, there was no live coverage. This time, however, a TV channel from the Middle East, Ten Sports, has won the right to telecast live all matches of the world cup. India’s national channel, Doordarshan, that is required to provide the earth station or ground signal, is beaming only India’s games of the World Cup.

Grassy playfields of Mumbai have been replaced here by Poligras synthetic playfields that have come from Australia. Leather balls used in Mumbai have long been replaced by Dimple balls that too have Australian origin.

India and Pakistan, who were till early 90s were known as the home for hockey sticks made from mulberry and bamboo wood, have also lost to the technology-savvy Europeans and Australians. Hockey sticks used by most of the participants here may have some South Asian components but these have been branded and marketed by companies based out of the sub-continent.

Gradual diminish is also reflected in the structure of the technical committee given the mandate to oversee the conduct of the tournament. Number of Indian Judges, umpires and other support staff, too, has been significantly reduced. Except for a Judge and two umpires, India has no other representation in this committee.

All said and done, the most important touch that even the International Hockey Federation, cannot at this time afford, to disappear is the crowd. Hockey is still a major crowd puller both in India and Pakistan. Eighty per cent of total TV viewer ship of any hockey event anywhere in the world comes from these two countries. It is this viewer ship that has been motivating major business houses like Hero, Sahara, SAIL and others to sponsor both hockey and cricket events worldwide.

Tailpiece: Confusion and chaos that prevails here, too, has been India’s major touch to this mega event.

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Are penalty corners taking too long

Hockey, though 102 years old in Olympics, is still evolving. Some changes, including video referral, have been necessitated not only because of advancement of technology but also to ensure fairness in the supervision and conduct of matches.

Video referrals though introduced the last Champions Trophy Hockey Tournament in Melbourne last year; it is for the first time that this technological advancement is used for post-review of an event captured on the camera to help the third umpire to arrive at correct adjudication.

And this may have cost India dearly for Shivendra Singh got two-match suspension for his alleged assault on Fareed Ahmed of Pakistan. No one can defend an assault irrespective of the nationality or affiliation of payers concerned, both attacker and the receiver.

It did raise a debate whether Technical or Tournament Director can take cognizance of an offence that eluded the attention of two umpires supervising the play. Technical Director explained that it was well within his rights to ensure the fair play guidelines are strictly enforced and safety of player on the playfield guaranteed. Earlier, there were no cameras and hence no video referrals. Cricket started it and hockey has followed. It is not long ago that the previous International Hockey Federation chief, Breda Els Vriesman had ruled out the possibility of introduction of third umpire or electronic umpire saying the FIH trusts its umpires and honours their judgment on the field.

This is not the first decision of the previous regime to be over ruled by the new set of office-bearers of the FIH.

While Breda Els Vriesman wanted hockey to become a more spectacular sport, she wanted the Rules Board to amend rules so that disruptions in the game because of umpires’ interventions be minimized. At one stage, it was argued that actual playing time in a 70-minute game of hockey was seldom more than 37-42 minutes.

Breda Els Vriesman did succeed in reducing unnecessary interventions by umpires by making basic changes in the rules governing free hit, kicking the ball, turning, shielding or screening of opponent, etc., etc. Even offside rule was given a go by.

Breda Els Vriesman also wanted another major change in taking of penalty corners. She though too much time was lost between award and taking of penalty corner. Players would run to sidelines to get instructions from the side benches.

This correspondent followed all matches on the fourth day yesterday. Interestingly, average time taken after award of a penalty corner and push from the goal line takes 50 seconds. In case there are successive awards of penalty corners, the second award would consume about 25 seconds.

The maximum taken yesterday was 67 seconds when Canada got its only penalty corner against Germany. Germans took 55 minutes to take their penalty corner.

When New Zealand got its first penalty corner against the Netherlands, it took 62 seconds to take it. The Netherlands took 50, 35, 53, 49 and 51 seconds in five penalty corners recorded by this correspondent. In a couple of cases when the umpires took time out, that has been subtracted from the actual time taken in taking a penalty corner. For example, in one case, umpire had taken seven seconds to clear a foreign object from the eyes of a defender in the New Zealand-the Netherlands match.

In the Argentina-Korea match, the average was 49 seconds while in case of a successive award, it was 27 seconds

Imagine how much time may have been lost when Australians took 13 penalty corners in their opening game against England. Time is mostly lost when the players go for safety gadgets, including face masks as well as abdominal guards. A game that is mandated to be played along the surface has, of late, been allowing more and more aerial play to become more spectacular.

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Do nations benefit by hosting World Cup

The Netherlands, Malaysia and India belong to a select band of nations who have had the privilege of holding the World Cup Hockey tournament more than once.

Hosting a tournament of the prestige of World Cup not only gives its ardent fraternity an extended chance to watch the top notch in action but also acts as a catalyst in promoting and encouraging a new generation to take to the sport seriously.

The Netherlands is an example. It organized the second World Cup in 1973 and won the title. Since then it has never looked back. It again won the World Cup in Lahore in 1990 and then as a host again in Utrecht in 1998. Hockey has now become a passion for the Dutch. It has perhaps the largest number of hockey playfields, all with latest version of synthetic pitches, and overwhelmingly large number of clubs and their members.

Both Malaysia and India, however, cannot emulate the Netherlands. Financial constraints may be one reason for these two Asian hockey giants to remain low in the international ranking ladder. Even the popularity of hockey has been unfortunately on the decline in both these countries.

After India organized the World Cup for the first time in 1982, it has never won a major FIH tournament. Its last major triumph has been the gold medal in truncated Moscow Olympic Games.

I had a chance to cover the 1998 World Cup in Utrecht in the Netherlands. Everyday hundreds of youngsters, dressed in their playing uniform, would come not only to witness the games but also play some friendly games amongst themselves on adjoining playfields. Further, the organizers had put up some exhibitions where latest hockey equipment was on display and sale. The organizers had also made sure that at the end of the day, these youngsters had enough to cheer about by organizing music parties for them.

Also during free hours, exhibition matches featuring men-women mixed teams, seniors and special people were also organized. To be precise, they converted the World Cup into a hockey festival in an endeavour to everyone interested in the sport with its organization.

However, here in India, it has been a different concept altogether. For some security concerns as well as for some other unknown reasons, organizers of the 2012 World Cup are not very keen for larger participation of both hockey enthusiasts and players in the successful conduct of the event. Except for some young trainees of the Punjab Sports Department, none of the trainees of various hockey academies could come here even if they wanted to come by buying tickets. Tickets remained out of their grasp. On some days, the turnout at Major Dhyan Chand National Hockey Stadium renovated at a massive cost of Rs 266 crore has been in hundreds and not even a thousand. Did the public money was spent just to cater to the needs, interests or personal benefit of only a select few? How does the Organising Committee as well as the Hockey India want to use this event as a lever to promote or revive hockey in the country?

Malaysia has not done that badly as we do. They have a regular tournament – Azlan Shah- on annual basis where they invite top teams of the World. Their position may have slightly improved but not come down drastically as is the case with India. Politics may be the reason that could be attributed for the failure of Malaysians to come up on international hockey horizons unlike both Korea and China, other two new Asian forces in world hockey.

Korea and China by organizing the Olympics and other major tournaments have relegated both India and Pakistan far behind both in men and women sections. After all they have reaped benefits of hosting the major hockey events. It is time for India to draw a leaf from the books of the Netherlands, China and Korea. Otherwise, hockey will be history.

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Pakistan on look out for a European coach

Is Pakistan on look out for a foreign coach to prepare its team for the Asian Games to be held in November this year?

Automatic qualifier for 2012 London Olympic games will be the Guangzhou Asian Games champion. Other teams from Asia aspiring for an Olympic berth will have to go through the rigmaroles of the Olympic qualifiers.

As of now besides India and Pakistan, contenders for a ticket to London will also include South Korea, Malaysia and China. Since the performance of India, Pakistan and Korea in the ongoing 12th World Cup has been below expectations of their respective team managements, planning has already started for the future in general and the Olympic games in particular.

Pakistan is seeking help of some of its friends in world hockey to locate an experienced international coach who can fine tune the present team by working on its weaknesses and sharpen its strong points to turn it into Asian Games champion.

Former goalkeeper Shahid Ali Khan is presently the chief coach of Pakistan. Incidentally, the Pakistan Hockey Federation is currently headed by an Olympian and former international player Qasim Zia.

Qasim Zia is using good offices of former Malaysian coach and Olympian Sarjit Singh to rope in a European coach.

“Yes, Pakistan is looking for a foreign coach and I am trying to help them,” says Sarjit Singh, refusing to divulge any further details. He says that new coach of the Malaysian team, after he gave up, has been his previous colleague and deputy.

He feels that China may not be a strong contender as he predicts Pakistan-Korea final giving India an outside chance of making to the Asian games final. It may be pertinent to mention here that in the 2008 Olympic Games, India had failed to qualify for the first time in 80 years. India had lost the Olympic qualifier final to Great Britain in Chile.

In the 2006 Asian games in Doha, India had failed to make the semi-final grade for the first time since hockey was introduced. The only interest left for Asian teams in the World Cup here is a chance to qualify for the elite Champions Trophy. Team finishing fifth here will definitely qualify.

A number of foreign coaches, exploring possibilities of signing contracts, are here. World Cup is an opportunity that brings the top notch not only among players, umpires, but also coaches, physical trainers and others associated with team managements.

India will have to wait till the elections to Hockey India are held. The International Hockey Federation that wanted this process to be completed by November last year has now extended the deadline till May this year because of some litigations and problems in granting affiliation to genuine and left out units. It will depend upon the new team whether to continue with the present chief coach, Jose Brasa, or look for someone else for future assignments of Indian team.

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