‘PROMOTING INDIAN HOCKEY’
A REPORT BY BOB DAVIDZON
ON BEHALF OF IOC AND FIH UNDER ‘OLYMPIC SOLIDARITY’
CONCERNED AT THE DECLINING FORTUNE OF TRADITONALLY STRONG INDIAN HOCKEY TEAMS AT THE INTERNATIONAL MEETS, THE FEDERATION INTERNATIONALE DE HOCKEY (FIH) IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE (IOC) UNDERTOOK A PROJECT TO PROMOTE INDIAN HOCKEY. THE INITIATIVE WAS FUNDED BY ‘OLYMPIC SOLIDARITY’ OF THE IOC. FIH’S FORMER MARKETING COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN BOB DAVIDZON, AFTER INTERACTING WITH VARIOUS STAKEHOLDERS, SUBMITTED HIS REPORT IN NOVEMBER 2006. THE REPORT IS REPRODUCED BELOW.
India: India is the 7th largest country in the world (more than 3 million sq.km) and most populous country (1.2 billion people), has 23 official languages strong religions and consists of 29 States and 6 so called Union territories subdivided into 602 districts in total all with a high degree of autonomy, India’s economy is by several criteria ranked in the top ten of the world and ranks second (to China) in the list of fastest growing economies. India’s per capita income of $3400 is ranked 122 in the world with the top 10% of income groups earning 33% of all income. The number of “rich Indians” has risen by 20% over 2005 (now reaching 83.000 = 0.007%). At the same time there are an estimated number of 12 million child labourers under the age of 14. India has worldwide the fastest growing service market with over 5 million small and medium sized businesses.
Hockey in India: Indian hockey (men) has dominated the world from as early as 1928 up until 1975 (with a short re-appearance at the Moscow Olympic Games with limited number of participants). In this glorious period it was undoubtedly:” the National Sport of India” The turning point in the performance of the national men’s team “coincides” with the decision by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) that all international world and continental events from 1976 onwards had/have to be played on certified synthetic turf. In fact the turning point is widely seen as the reason for the decline in view of the lack of synthetic pitches in India ever since. Even today India has only 26 synthetic pitches and due to climatic, economic and maintenance conditions quite a number of them are not in a very good shape either. A second “outside influence” often mentioned on the deterioration of performance is the series of changes in the Rules of hockey that do not benefit the Asian style of play. Women hockey has lived quietly along side the men during this painful period but did not have the “misery” of a glorious past. During these last three decades cricket has assumed large proportions and is now by far the dominating sport in India and is seen as the country’s flagship for sports (But not Olympic).
Within these very difficult circumstances officials of both IHF and IWHF have – with very limited numbers of professional manpower – done their utmost to try to keep the ship sailing nationally and to keep pace with the tremendous fast developments of the game internationally for which they should be complimented.
Given the described situation it is understandable that much reference to the glorious past is made by many stakeholders, who however also show a potential to join forces for a fight back to the top provided there is a clear and realistic underlying plan:
Given objectives for project Promotion of Indian Hockey
• re-establishing India’s position as a top six men’s and women’s hockey nation with realistic medal ambitions.
• establishing a development infrastructure which acknowledges the modern demands of competitive hockey.
• enhancing the Indian Hockey Confederation to provide a robust, vigorous and sustainable organisational structure for the development and both men’s and women’s hockey.
• taking a bold and strategic view of the future which recognises the need for strong professional administrative structures among all level hockey nations.
• providing a strong legacy from the current administration and succession planning for the future.
Present situation: At this moment there are three National Hockey (Con) Federations.
• Indian Hockey Federation: IHF (governing men’s hockey in India).
• Indian Women Hockey Federation: IWHF (governing women’s hockey in India).
• Indian Hockey Confederation: IHC (founded in 2000, to comply with the statutes and bye-laws of the FIH as the sole body – for men and women – representing India internationally).
The separate structure of hockey for men and women in India has historical, demographic and emotional backgrounds. There is however also a financial benefit whereas the two original federations are both recognised by the Indian Olympic Association (l