Hockey needs TLC: Tender, loving care
On the sidelines of the Olympics at Beijing, I got talking to a sports journalist from Pakistan about hockey. As I expressed casual concern over the continuous losses his national team was suffering at the Big Games, his retort was swift and angry. “We are at least here which you can’t say about the Indian team,” he said resentfully. True, but that was never the point.
Not that one was comparing or even talking of Indian hockey which had been shown the door for the first time in the Olympic qualifiers, but for the Pakistani scribe it was enough of a red rag that an Indian was commenting on “his” team.
So, when the Pakistani team threw up its worst performance ever in hockey during the just concluded World Cup, that too on Indian soil, it would have hurt as never before. In comparison, India was no better, losing all its games other than the one against Pakistan. If one were allowed to say or is capable to see, this is a huge blow to sub-continental hockey but many in the stands and in animated homes across India felt the team had won its very won world cup — by defeating Pakistan!
If one were to talk about performance of the Indians, the wrong finger-raising activity of Prabhjot notwithstanding, you would say the woebegone team played with all its heart in most matches. It even jumped to the eighth spot from the 12th. Coach Brasa rightly termed this an achievement.
After the way we have treated our national game down the years, we have no leg to stand on and demand a fruitful performance by Rajpal’s boys. One is sure not many would know who Rajpal Singh is, though he is Dhoni’s equivalent in hockey.
It is actually a miracle that despite such disdain and neglect by the nation at large and an entirely ruinous administration of this sport in particular, the squad showed as much verve as it did at a global meet. It fought to the best of its ability, showing spurts of excellence. Yes, they fumbled with traps, messed up passes and very rarely managed to convert penalty corners but they showed the promise that things will improve in future if, that is, the game gets even half as much infrastructural and emotional support as cricket gets in our country.
Think about it. Indian Hockey was at its nadir in the months preceding the tournament. An ad hoc body had all but thrown out most players for deigning to ask for subsistence money. They were branded traitors and anti-nationals but they stood their ground and rightfully so. Brasa admitted that training was far from adequate and the international exposure almost nil.
Why was such a situation allowed to crop up in the first place? No money, no power, no fan-following and absolutely no roadmap for success and, to top it, the burden of chaos – can anyone perform in such a mess?
Compare this to cricket. Can you ever imagine our star cricketers staying in a third grade hotel in the Capital prior to a World Cup? The Indian hockey players had to do that till other teams flew in and they were shifted to the team hotel by FIH. Most of our hockey players come from under-privileged backgrounds and have been playing without a grading and contract system on which cricket thrives. Very few sponsors and almost no domestic or foreign tournaments have done the game in.
Cricketers, on the other hand, are treated as demigods even when they lose. The last time India won an ODI world cup was in 1983 and in the last one could not even get through the group stage, bundled out by Bangladesh! But no one stopped worshipping them.
Such is their aura that even sports journalists are cautious about asking difficult questions. In Press conferences after Press conferences during the T20 World Cup in England last year, skipper Dhoni kept saying that the team was falling off the ledge because it did not have enough fielding practice. No one dared to question him why that was so. Why would fielding be short of the mark when millions were being spent to train cricketers? A trainer, a fielding coach, a physio and a mind-bender — the team has hired an entire catalogue of support staff and from the highest echelons of excellence. So why was fielding suffering or how could it be allowed to suffer? No one asked as Dhoni’s star power is fearsome.
In contrast, hockey skipper Rajpal Singh was put on the mat repeatedly after losing to Spain. A journalist not just accused him and his team of being jokers but also asked him to explain how they could afford to lose in a world cup in India. Rajpal was hauled over coals by abrasive questioning which almost got abusive. Would he have dared to do so to Dhoni?
The point here is: Do not accuse our hockey players of non-performance. First see the state the game is in and then hold up expectations. As the situation stands, the World Cup is over and one fears hockey will yet again lose the currency it requires to bounce back. A sustained support system is needed to revive the national game to its potential. Instead of stupidly arguing that cricket should be made our national game, we should as a nation do what is needed to spur the Rajpals, the Prabhjots and the Sandeeps to hold the world trophy high and give the nation those captivating photos of the team having a champagne bath under a swarm of confetti. Once we give our players this support, we will have a bench of Dhonis, Yuvrajs and Sachins in hockey too. But till we do that, we need to shut up on the players being sloppy underperformers.
Not that one was comparing or even talking of Indian hockey which had been shown the door for the first time in the Olympic qualifiers, but for the Pakistani scribe it was enough of a red rag that an Indian was commenting on “his” team.
So, when the Pakistani team threw up its worst performance ever in hockey during the just concluded World Cup, that too on Indian soil, it would have hurt as never before. In comparison, India was no better, losing all its games other than the one against Pakistan. If one were allowed to say or is capable to see, this is a huge blow to sub-continental hockey but many in the stands and in animated homes across India felt the team had won its very won world cup — by defeating Pakistan!
If one were to talk about performance of the Indians, the wrong finger-raising activity of Prabhjot notwithstanding, you would say the woebegone team played with all its heart in most matches. It even jumped to the eighth spot from the 12th. Coach Brasa rightly termed this an achievement.
After the way we have treated our national game down the years, we have no leg to stand on and demand a fruitful performance by Rajpal’s boys. One is sure not many would know who Rajpal Singh is, though he is Dhoni’s equivalent in hockey.
It is actually a miracle that despite such disdain and neglect by the nation at large and an entirely ruinous administration of this sport in particular, the squad showed as much verve as it did at a global meet. It fought to the best of its ability, showing spurts of excellence. Yes, they fumbled with traps, messed up passes and very rarely managed to convert penalty corners but they showed the promise that things will improve in future if, that is, the game gets even half as much infrastructural and emotional support as cricket gets in our country.
Think about it. Indian Hockey was at its nadir in the months preceding the tournament. An ad hoc body had all but thrown out most players for deigning to ask for subsistence money. They were branded traitors and anti-nationals but they stood their ground and rightfully so. Brasa admitted that training was far from adequate and the international exposure almost nil.
Why was such a situation allowed to crop up in the first place? No money, no power, no fan-following and absolutely no roadmap for success and, to top it, the burden of chaos – can anyone perform in such a mess?
Compare this to cricket. Can you ever imagine our star cricketers staying in a third grade hotel in the Capital prior to a World Cup? The Indian hockey players had to do that till other teams flew in and they were shifted to the team hotel by FIH. Most of our hockey players come from under-privileged backgrounds and have been playing without a grading and contract system on which cricket thrives. Very few sponsors and almost no domestic or foreign tournaments have done the game in.
Cricketers, on the other hand, are treated as demigods even when they lose. The last time India won an ODI world cup was in 1983 and in the last one could not even get through the group stage, bundled out by Bangladesh! But no one stopped worshipping them.
Such is their aura that even sports journalists are cautious about asking difficult questions. In Press conferences after Press conferences during the T20 World Cup in England last year, skipper Dhoni kept saying that the team was falling off the ledge because it did not have enough fielding practice. No one dared to question him why that was so. Why would fielding be short of the mark when millions were being spent to train cricketers? A trainer, a fielding coach, a physio and a mind-bender — the team has hired an entire catalogue of support staff and from the highest echelons of excellence. So why was fielding suffering or how could it be allowed to suffer? No one asked as Dhoni’s star power is fearsome.
In contrast, hockey skipper Rajpal Singh was put on the mat repeatedly after losing to Spain. A journalist not just accused him and his team of being jokers but also asked him to explain how they could afford to lose in a world cup in India. Rajpal was hauled over coals by abrasive questioning which almost got abusive. Would he have dared to do so to Dhoni?
The point here is: Do not accuse our hockey players of non-performance. First see the state the game is in and then hold up expectations. As the situation stands, the World Cup is over and one fears hockey will yet again lose the currency it requires to bounce back. A sustained support system is needed to revive the national game to its potential. Instead of stupidly arguing that cricket should be made our national game, we should as a nation do what is needed to spur the Rajpals, the Prabhjots and the Sandeeps to hold the world trophy high and give the nation those captivating photos of the team having a champagne bath under a swarm of confetti. Once we give our players this support, we will have a bench of Dhonis, Yuvrajs and Sachins in hockey too. But till we do that, we need to shut up on the players being sloppy underperformers.
Published March 14, 2010, Sunday Pioneer; http://www.dailypioneer.com/241933/Hockey-needs-TLC-Tender-loving-care.html
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