To quote a fast instance earlier than trying on the greater image, after Hockey India introduced a prize cash of Rs 15 lakh to every participant for the bronze medal win on the Paris Olympics, Madhya Pradesh set the tone for the state governments with a Rs 1 crore reward for the midfielder from Itarsi, Vivek Sagar Prasad, additionally a Deputy Superintendent of Police in MP.
(Vivek Sagar Prasad with MP chief minister Mohan Yadav – ANI Photograph)
That is fairly a wholesome checking account within the title of a 24-year-old participant from hockey — a sport by which coaches like Baldev Singh needed to put their financial savings into shopping for a four-wheeler and convert it to accommodate a complete staff after which himself drive gamers to matches throughout Haryana and past.
And that also sounds higher than the crowd-funding that groups pre- and post-independence needed to do as a way to journey and compete on the Olympics.
This never-give-up perception highlights the connection the game has to the lots. From the deep, nearly inaccessible, corners of the nation to the well-lit city neighbourhoods and plush metropolitan housing societies, everybody in India celebrates main hockey triumphs. The connection additional exhibits in the truth that regardless of the dearth of assets, cash and amenities, dad and mom by no means pulled their youngsters out of dusty village hockey grounds.
Had that been the case, India wouldn’t have had a Rani Rampal, daughter of a cart-puller. Or a PR Sreejesh, whose father needed to pull out all stops to someway handle a sum of Rs. 15,000 for a goalkeeper equipment in order that his son would not get taunted by his mates. Or a Neha Goyal, whose mom endured home violence, labored in a cycle manufacturing unit and nonetheless backed her youngster to go and play hockey.
(Indian staff on the rostrum at Paris Olympics after profitable bronze medal – AFP Photograph)
Not like Pakistan, the place lack of Olympic and World Cup medals after 1994 mixed with poor governance despatched the game right into a darkish abyss, India swung into motion submit the period of erstwhile Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) to not simply enhance the administration in its new avatar as Hockey India, but in addition knock on the door of corporates and persuade them to help the sport.
Credit score additionally goes to the Indian PSUs and authorities items for persevering with to have hockey groups and thus create jobs that maintain the gamers’ kitchen operating whereas they concentrate on honing their abilities — one thing that has evaporated throughout the border in Pakistan and proved detrimental to the youth’s curiosity within the sport.
The comparability with Pakistan is essential as a result of whereas India made an effort to adapt and evolve within the 21st century after years of denial, Pakistan did not. And the result’s for the world to see.
Former HI president Narinder Batra’s alleged dictatorial methods of governance have typically been condemned, however he deserves credit score for bringing cash into the game since 2010. The help of the Odisha authorities proved to be a gamechanger because the state opened its coffers to sponsor the Indian nationwide hockey groups throughout ranges.
Company curiosity and funding gave beginning to the Hockey India League (HIL) in 2013, and the Junior World Cup was conquered in 2016, which had lots do with the provision chain put in place by the HIL, the advantages of which continued within the type of successive Olympic bronze medals — first in Tokyo, then Paris. Nonetheless, the World Cup stays a horse that the Indian staff is but to saddle.
(Indian gamers doing lap of honour at Paris Olympics – ANI Photograph)
The subsequent World Cup is in two years’ time, when India may have one other probability to make amends and provides Ajit Pal Singh’s 1975 champions firm. It is a disgrace that India hosted two successive males’s World Cups at house and did not even make the semis with the gang behind them at jaw-dropping settings like Rourkela’s Birsa Munda Stadium and the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar. Now, they must try this on overseas soil — with Belgium and the Netherlands to co-host the 2026 version.
The subsequent two years will probably be essential in multiple sense. The steadiness and consistency must be proven, by the gamers on the sector and within the insurance policies framed by the federation. Sticking to a course of that has been efficiently put in place by coach Craig Fulton must be a given, not less than until the 2026 World Cup. Then the street to LA 2028 may be reassessed.
With reference to gamers’ social safety, it was a very good step taken by HI two years in the past, when it launched the coverage of annual money incentives, the place every taking part in member will get Rs 50,000 for each win registered by India’s senior women and men groups, whereas the help employees will get Rs 25,000.
With Olympic success, together with the historic fourth-place end by the ladies’s staff in Tokyo, HI can take this stability to the following stage and introduce central contracts, like in cricket, and base it strictly on efficiency and never repute. It might mark the start of India turning into the primary nation to have full-time skilled hockey gamers.
(PR Sreejesh, who retired after the Paris Olympics, climbed the goal-post after India’s bronze-medal win – ANI Photograph)
In a podcast hosted by nnis on X (previously Twitter) after India’s bronze medal win in Paris, former India captain Arjun Halappa urged HI to significantly take into account this.
“I might like to see Indian gamers getting central contracts, the place some monetary assurance is assured,” mentioned the 2010 Asian Video games bronze medallist, who added that he and his former teammates had raised the difficulty again in 2009.
“It’s not about cash, it’s in regards to the effort we (gamers) are placing in for the entire yr for the nation. If central contracts are available in, it will likely be an enormous game-changer for the game of hockey. It’s one factor I need to see. We fought for it in 2009-10.”
Halappa mentioned it could finish the plight and dilemma of a younger hockey participant in India.
“Hockey gamers come from poor backgrounds principally, the place dad and mom wrestle to make ends meet; there are neither research, nor cash. In the event that they go on to play for India (senior), then they will hope of securing a job, in any other case they discover themselves on the crossroads,” Halappa, who was a part of India’s victorious 2001 Junior World Cup-winning staff, mentioned.
(Manpreet Singh, left, and Mandeep Singh being welcomed on arrival at their hometown Mithapur – AFP Photograph)
HI might argue that the roles gamers safe as India internationals lend stability to their hockey careers. However the federation should not miss the purpose that it would not make them skilled gamers, which might not be a development within the sport the world over however one thing not many gamers will oppose. HI can prepared the ground on this with the momentum of two successive Olympic medals for the primary time in 52 years and more cash within the financial institution in comparison with the nationwide federations of different main hockey-playing nations.
A grade-based central contract system will inspire gamers and enhance competitors for locations even additional as a result of higher, constant performers will probably be within the increased grade and thus earn extra.
Above all, it may well deliver a change within the age-old thought technique of securing a job by turning into a world participant. A central contract, providing gamers an opportunity to earn extra, can take its place.
Nonetheless, it may well’t be debated that the era of gamers a part of Indian hockey’s journey since 2010 have been properly taken care of. They’ve been appropriately rewarded, for 5 years in HIL (2013 to 2017) after which for his or her exceptional return to the Olympic podium in Tokyo and staying there in Paris. It is the following crop of gamers, somebody like Sanjay, Sukhjeet, Abhishek and Raj Kumar Pal, that HI must make really feel safe about their future as an India participant.
(ANI Photograph)
The second version of the HIL, anticipated to roll out by the tip of this yr, will as soon as once more lay the muse of that safety and making gamers hockey professionals. Hopefully, the league may even give India extra Mandeep Singhs that go on to turn into Olympic medallists and re-establish the provision chain that bought snapped in 2017. And a central contract moving into the combination will make these gamers ‘fearless’ in each sense.
As a hat-trick of Olympic medals beckons, it might be a game-changing begin to the post-Sreejesh period on the street to LA 2028.
