NEW DELHI: Indian hockey has been on an upswing, particularly after the lads’s group’s back-to-back medal-winning campaigns within the Olympics and the latest title triumph within the Asian Champions trophy. Given hockey’s rising recognition, Hockey India (HI), the sports activities nationwide federation, has revived its Hockey India League (HIL) after a hiatus of seven years. HIL guarantees to interrupt new grounds in a rustic the place cricket calls the pictures.
HI on Friday introduced the return of HIL with the introduction of eight males’s and 6 ladies’s groups after engaged on the thought for six months. HIL is returning in an even bigger and higher avatar – as a money-spinning automobile to lure prime hockey gamers from the world over worldwide via massive pay cheques. A complete of 10 franchise house owners have come on board. The gamers’ public sale is scheduled between Oct 13-15 right here. HI has entered into an settlement with group house owners for the subsequent 10 years to run the league, and it is the large funding each by HI and the franchises which has set the tongues wagging.
TOI has learnt that Rs 3,640 crore shall be spent on the league over the subsequent 10 years, with HI chipping in with an funding of Rs 112 crore every year, largely banking on HIL’s title sponsor(s), different promoters and broadcast deal.
In accordance with sources, HI has pledged a complete funding of Rs 1,120 crore for 10 years to maintain the league. There are a complete of 14 groups with some among the many 10 house owners shopping for a number of city-based franchises. The franchises will spend round Rs 18 crore on every group (women and men) yearly which interprets into Rs 252 crore for 14 groups. So, for the subsequent 10 years, franchises will shelve out Rs 2,520 crore – largely on gamers and training assist employees’s salaries and grassroot growth of the game via their hockey academies. So, contemplating HI’s contribution of Rs 1,120 crore and franchises’ spending of Rs 2,520 crore, HIL will boast of a complete funding purse of Rs 3,640 crore.
It has been learnt that out of Rs 18 crore to be spent by every group, the gamers’ purse for each franchise has been fastened at Rs 7 crore for males and Rs four crore for girls every year. Every franchise will construct a 24-player (women and men every) squad, consisting of 16 Indian gamers with a compulsory inclusion of 4 junior gamers and a most of eight worldwide gamers. Gamers shall be auctioned in three classes with their base value being Rs 2 lakh (for juniors), Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh. For instance, if the Indian males’s group captain Harmanpreet Singh reserves his base value at Rs 10 lakh, he might be purchased for a a lot larger quantity. The group house owners have to make sure that they adhere to the cap of Rs seven crore for constructing their males’s squad.
The return of HIL will mark the primary time a standalone ladies’s league will run concurrently with the lads’s competitors. “The introduction of an unique ladies’s league throughout the HIL framework will present a strong platform for feminine athletes to exhibit their prowess, paving the way in which for a extra inclusive and aggressive future for Indian hockey,” HI president Dilip Tirkey mentioned.
FIH, the game’s world governing physique, has given sanction of 10 years for HIL. A devoted window between the final week of December and first week of February has been created for the league. No different competitors will happen throughout that window to make sure the highest overseas gamers stay accessible for choice.
