International Hockey Federation + Hockey India = Mess

Amby Valley, I think you remember this name. Each player of the cricket team was given a house when they lost the final against Australia in 2003. Yes, Amby Valley is a project by Sahara Parivar, sponsors of Indian cricket and Hockey team. But, do you know that Sahara’s Chairman Mr. Subroto Roy is an ardent hockey fan. When his company decided to enter sports sponsorship, it first came to hockey. It was in early 1995. They sponsored the eighth Indira Gandhi International Gold Cup hockey that year. Besides India, England, Australia, Malaysia, South Korea and Poland were in the fray.

Not just sponsorship was it. It was all time big, a grand affair. They ran an ad-campaign to popularize the event. Leading cinema stars Shah Rukh Khan, Amir Khan, Juhi Chawla and others were roped in, and the 15 to 30 second commercials featuring them were hits during the live telecast of the tournament. “Love India, Love Hockey” was another of their campaigns. Stickers and posters carrying this message was all over Delhi. Big posters, hoardings filled the important landmarks.

And, significantly, Sahara purchased five Maruti Esteem Air-conditioned luxury cars and displayed it on the verdure of the National Stadium. The cars were to be presented to each Player of the Final, Player of the Tournament, best goal-keeper, top scorer and winning coach. Hockey never had it so good.

To create problems in this well organized tournament or we can say one of the best in India till that date, came the treasurer of FIH was opposed to giving up the individual prizes to the players. Mr. Subrato Roy asked the treasurer that if a player is doing well, shouldn’t he be awarded. But his efforts were in vain. As a result, Mr. Roy left the stadium and did not even come to watch the finals. And rest is we say is history. There were no sponsors for Indian team for a long time. But later same Sahara group came to rescue the Indian team by sponsoring the team and saving the face of the federation by giving them money when required.

We blame only Indian Federation for killing the sport, but we cannot blame only the federation for that. The approach of FIH was not any better. I believe that regular change in rules is not for betterment of the game, but to cause problems for poor Asian teams. India and Pakistan are supposed to be powerhouse in hockey and their performance did not dip overnight. We were the rulers of the game, but then everything changed. Things like introduction of synthetic turf and the change of rules when Indian goalkeepers was doing well against the penalty corner experts. Introduction of synthetic turf was one of the major reasons. India could not afford synthetic turf (still at some places its the same) and all international matches are played on that turf.

India has maximum of 15 world class turfs while Holland has more than 450. Hockey players know that the turf was introduced so that the game can be fair but if you are coming out with a plan then you should be neutral. European teams were already practicing on the turf. Whereas the India and Pakistan did not know what synthetic turf is, forget about playing on it.

If the approach of FIH had been neutral then the face of Indian hockey would have been different…..