Dear Aslambhai,
Greetings. Probably, you may not be aware of your contribution in a schoolboy’s life in 1975. Your goal that sealed the fate for India’s first and only World Cup victory in the finals v/s Pakistan at Kuala Lumpur . Also respected is your fellow selector Ajitpal Singh- then the best centre-half in the world and who proved he had a ‘backbone’ by playing you v/s Pakistan despite instructions from New Delhi to the contrary as alleged.
Today, both of you find yourselves with an opportunity to clean out the Aegean stable. You along with your fellow team members were responsible for us schoolboys to take to the national sport- to be candid; I never took to cricket as seriously as hockey representing my school, Ahmedabad, missed representing Gujarat in the junior Nehru tournament due to an injury.
Today after 26 years, missing the Nehru trophy national level at Delhi still hurts.
The raison de etre of writing to you is to convey that you need to take in inputs from one and all-passionate followers of the game and just not the ‘experts’.
We could begin with realising that the Punjab is not the granary of hockey players any longer. The roots are stronger with a broader base in Orissa, Jharkhand, Chattisgrah and Karnataka. The ratio of the players coming from these regions since the last five years within the team will tell you this.
We still have not involved the common man to send his daughter or son to play hockey instead of cricket. We can start organising neighbourhood matches of seven players each in one team. The format being each player being allowed to touch the ball at a time maximum thrice or be pulled up for a foul. This will improve trapping, passing, changing flanks… and ‘off the ball’ running- the basic skills of the game
which we lack today. A game of 30 minutes in two halves played on a skating rink sized area or on a basketball ground with no hits & scoops allowed. Only pushes allowed.
This format in the above-mentioned potential granaries played out, as a tourney will get us the talent, the crowds and the sponsors, as these games will be played under artificial lighting in the evenings. Instead of going for a national sponsor, we should go for local sponsors including ‘ grocery’ shops. Rs. One thousand collected from twenty shops will realise twenty thousand rupees.
The initial objective is to attract crowds. The television networks, sponsors and the media will have to follow – not instantly but in the due course.
After all “ Once you make the best mouse-trap in the world. The world will make a beaten path to your door”
There are many such practical ideas up for grab, provided you have not just the time and willingness, but also practical measures to improve our hockey.
1 Comment
did your aslam bhai reply you