From thestar.com

When Canada’s field hockey team scooped an Olympic berth, little did its players of South Asian
July 10, 2008

Neil Acharya

The Canadian men’s field hockey team will make a return trip to the Olympic Games in Beijing after an eight-year hiatus. They qualified last summer at the Pan- Am Games in thrilling fashion, recording a shootout victory over a rival Argentine squad favoured to win gold. The win put Canada back in Olympic field hockey competition for the first time since Sydney in 2000. Netting the winning goal was Etobicoke resident Wayne Fernandes.

“It was a lifelong dream, which was getting a bit far-fetched,” Fernandes says of the Pan-Am effort. “We had seven years of disappointments and heartaches and then it all came together last year when we won the Pan-Ams.”

Fernandes, 29, is a defender for Canada and is one of six players of South Asian descent who will represent Team Canada in China in August. “Our team is rather diverse and the diversity of our team really reflects the culture that we have here in Canada. We are really a well-rounded team, which brings a lot of styles to the field.”

Even though Canada has a large South Asian contingent, the Canadian style of field hockey strays far from the finesse of India and Pakistan and borrows more from Canada’s national winter sport.

“We’ve all grown up playing ice hockey,” says Ajay Dube, Canadian national team manager. “So we tend to play (field hockey) in a strategic team style. We are physically tough.”

Dube’s playing career ended in 1993 after 14 years with the national club that played in the 1986 World Cup, 1987 Pan-Am Games and the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

Because Canada does not necessarily have the same talent pool to draw from as other nations, they earn their victories the hard way, Dube explains. “We are rough and tough, we play by the rules and will not get knocked down by anybody. We are closer to being Don Cherry’s boys than anything. He would love us.”

When India shockingly failed to qualify for the Olympics, members of the Indian press bandied about the idea of supporting Canada due to the number of players of Indian origin on the team. Like Fernandes, 34-year-old midfielder Ken Pereira was born in the GTA and can trace his roots back to Goa in Western India. When his parents made their annual winter trip back to India this year, they saw coverage of their son’s squad in the press.

“My parents read in the Indian Express that because India is out we can now cheer for Canada because they have the most Indians on their team. It means nothing for anyone here (as a news story), but my mom and dad are flipping through the paper across the world in India and there I am with my picture in the paper,” says Pereira. “Within a couple of days, they got mail from everybody. I thought it was really, really cool that they were saying that because India was out they can cheer for Canada. It’s pretty neat.”

While the Indian media has recently been paying attention to Team Canada, fans of both India and Pakistan were quick to recognize the South Asian element of our national team. “Any country we go to, they (India and Pakistan) have a huge following. Wherever we go, there is always have crowd of at least a couple of hundred. When they see the Canadian team and they see four or five of us Indians, it’s funny, because we always get pulled aside and they’ll ask where we are from and tell us to come over for food,” chuckles Pereira, who played for Canada in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

Dube explains that even though the team members of South Asian heritage are very proud of their roots, it has to be put in perspective in the grand scheme of things. “The fact that we have South Asian players on our team should be said and should be told, but it should be told in the right context — 98 per cent of our players are Canadian-born and raised.”

Not only does Canada’s men’s national field hockey team represent the Canadian mosaic in its ethnic makeup, but Dube alludes to the notion that the team represents the modern Canadian experience. “We are Canada. In education, wealth and diversity. We’ve got a taxi driver playing for us and we also have someone that interviewed to be a Rhodes Scholar.”

While every Olympic athlete strives for success, the Canadian field hockey team has more riding on its performance. Success can reinvigorate the sport on the home front. “Field hockey is sort of fading, especially in Toronto,” says Pereira. “If we do well, you would hope that it would create some interest and attract more people to play, Indians, Canadians or whatever.”

Pereira has seen first-hand how international success translates to added support and interest in the sport.

“I remember in ’98 we finished eighth in the World Cup, which was our highest ranking ever. For two years after we had more people coming out to camps and more interest and a little bit more media. Then in 2000, we lost about seven guys to retirement and we had trouble recovering. Rebuilding took about eight years.”

Like most of his teammates and many other amateur athletes, he has spent more money playing the sport than he has earned playing pro, but representing Canada makes it all worth it.

“Any time you put on the Canadian jersey it is the coolest feeling, walking out with your team and hearing your national anthem. I get goose bumps still and I have played over 260 games for Canada. When you play field hockey for your country, you are not doing it for money whatsoever, you are doing it because you love playing and doing it for Canada.”

Fernandes agrees. “It is a financial commitment, but . . . since I was 10 or 12, it has been my dream to go to the Olympics and so I don’t think you can really put a price on that.”

Neil Acharya is a freelance journalist based in Toronto. He is a play-by-play commentator for junior hockey broadcasts on Rogers Television.