Give hockey due honour or don’t call it national game
The last blazing headline on Indian Hockey said: All is well, for now. ‘For now’ is the operative, alarming and fearsome part. Our national game is in perpetual ignominy and no one seems to be doing anything about it, at least no one in a position of power or anyone, for that matter, associated with the game from the inside.
It is alarming that one day, Hockey India’s provisional head declares in no uncertain terms that if players demand money they can take a walk. He tells the nation that he will field a Team B; he will not give money; he will definitely not be pressured by “anti-nationals” — these being players wanting money over national pride.
The very next day, IOA chief Suresh Kalmadi steps in and announces Rs 1 crore for the players, pending the World Cup and the Hockey India elections! For anyone who knows, Mattoo is an IOA man so there was something that was not for real when he was making announcements of dumping the team.
Indian Hockey, already reeling under funds and infrastructural crunch, is fighting an almost lost battle for survival. It does not need any of the politics that is surrounding its turf. It definitely can’t do sans funds and the last straw for it will be a player revolt.
As it is, there is scant chance of India winning the World Cup that starts on its land next month. Even coach Brasa has said it is the worst team and at 12th position! If player woes are added to this dismal situation the result can only be sudden death and someone, somewhere needs to take care of this disastrous hurtle.
Other than that, it is ridiculous for everyone to expect the players to prefer nation over survival. No one does that, no one should be expected to. Imagine Tendulkar or Dhoni playing for pride when they do not have good shoes, respectable jerseys or a bat of quality. Imagine Harbhajan, Yuvraj and Sehwag staying in third grade facilities while on foreign tours and the rest of the squad being given $20 something per diem! Won’t national duty then go out of the window?
Actually, it is truly amazing that hockey players have no official contract or a system of getting match fee or tour stipend. If cricket has a grading system of annual payment to all players, why should hockey not have one? Apparently, nowhere in the world does a hockey team come under any kind of financial contract given by their federations. They survive on sponsorship money and are, thus, at the beck and call of the respective corporates their federations sign up with.
If that’s the case, instability from hockey will never go away and all our dream of pulling it back to the gold pedestal at the Olympics will merely be dreams — day dreams.
Unhealthy players plagued with issues can never strike goals, they will merely argue about everything they need and are not given. An honest effort needs to be put into making the game financially viable for the players. Then and only then will it start paying honourable dividends.
For, this is not China where the regime has the right to pick you up at birth, train you vigorously and then not allow you to question it about your future in case you do not get to wear the national jersey. This is India, a democracy where everyone has the right to dissent and the hockey players have chosen the most happening time to extract whatever they can from the moment in time. And their moment in time happens to be the run-up to the World Cup, for that’s the time their chaotic establishment will be compelled to sit up, listen and grant.
It is unfortunate that even after Indian Hockey got knocked off the Olympic rolls, no one in the establishment has sat down to take stock and iron out the mess. The chaos has only grown as has ad-hocism and apathy. Time to either shed that or stop claiming that hockey is still our national game. For, no nation treats its national game with as much disdain as India has done!
It is alarming that one day, Hockey India’s provisional head declares in no uncertain terms that if players demand money they can take a walk. He tells the nation that he will field a Team B; he will not give money; he will definitely not be pressured by “anti-nationals” — these being players wanting money over national pride.
The very next day, IOA chief Suresh Kalmadi steps in and announces Rs 1 crore for the players, pending the World Cup and the Hockey India elections! For anyone who knows, Mattoo is an IOA man so there was something that was not for real when he was making announcements of dumping the team.
Indian Hockey, already reeling under funds and infrastructural crunch, is fighting an almost lost battle for survival. It does not need any of the politics that is surrounding its turf. It definitely can’t do sans funds and the last straw for it will be a player revolt.
As it is, there is scant chance of India winning the World Cup that starts on its land next month. Even coach Brasa has said it is the worst team and at 12th position! If player woes are added to this dismal situation the result can only be sudden death and someone, somewhere needs to take care of this disastrous hurtle.
Other than that, it is ridiculous for everyone to expect the players to prefer nation over survival. No one does that, no one should be expected to. Imagine Tendulkar or Dhoni playing for pride when they do not have good shoes, respectable jerseys or a bat of quality. Imagine Harbhajan, Yuvraj and Sehwag staying in third grade facilities while on foreign tours and the rest of the squad being given $20 something per diem! Won’t national duty then go out of the window?
Actually, it is truly amazing that hockey players have no official contract or a system of getting match fee or tour stipend. If cricket has a grading system of annual payment to all players, why should hockey not have one? Apparently, nowhere in the world does a hockey team come under any kind of financial contract given by their federations. They survive on sponsorship money and are, thus, at the beck and call of the respective corporates their federations sign up with.
If that’s the case, instability from hockey will never go away and all our dream of pulling it back to the gold pedestal at the Olympics will merely be dreams — day dreams.
Unhealthy players plagued with issues can never strike goals, they will merely argue about everything they need and are not given. An honest effort needs to be put into making the game financially viable for the players. Then and only then will it start paying honourable dividends.
For, this is not China where the regime has the right to pick you up at birth, train you vigorously and then not allow you to question it about your future in case you do not get to wear the national jersey. This is India, a democracy where everyone has the right to dissent and the hockey players have chosen the most happening time to extract whatever they can from the moment in time. And their moment in time happens to be the run-up to the World Cup, for that’s the time their chaotic establishment will be compelled to sit up, listen and grant.
It is unfortunate that even after Indian Hockey got knocked off the Olympic rolls, no one in the establishment has sat down to take stock and iron out the mess. The chaos has only grown as has ad-hocism and apathy. Time to either shed that or stop claiming that hockey is still our national game. For, no nation treats its national game with as much disdain as India has done!
Published January 17, 2010 in Sunday Pioneer; http://www.dailypioneer.com/229741/Give-hockey-due-honour-or-don%E2%80%99t-call-it-national-game.html
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