Twitter exploding. Prime Minister Narendra Modi phoning Indian captain Manpreet and head coach Graham Reid to offer congratulations. Millions in front of their TV sets all over the country and millions more gazing at their cell phone screens. The Olympic bronze medal win in Tokyo on Thursday brought Indian hockey under the sporting spotlight, as expected after the game disappeared under the radar for four decades.
The last of eight gold medals came at the 1980 Moscow Olympics but euphoria then was subdued, given that the event was denuded by the US-led boycott in protest of the erstwhile Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.
It did, however, provide vital oxygen for the flagging sport in the country after the ravages of the 1976 Montreal Olympic and 1978 Buenos Aires disasters.
Today, the bronze medal won in a full dress tournament has done that and more. It has justified the faith reposed in the country’s hockey effort come under the scanner for years of failure in the wake of massive investment.
Hockey’s forward strides has been discernible for some time now. The steady rise in the ranking from double digits to today’s No. 3 has stemmed from a fresh administration that is Hockey India in place of a dysfunctional Indian Hockey Federation some 12 years ago.
Teams – men and women and age groups — have gone through a programme that has revealed itself to be efficient in terms of steady gains over the last five years culminating in the podium finish in Tokyo.
There were global medals won in successive years – the 2016 and 2016 Champions Trophy silver and the 2017 HWL bronze but acclaim was limited to aficionados. It takes the Olympics to captivate the general public and the Tokyo success has achieved much of this.
This could mean more sponsorship to augment the current support rendered by the Odisha government and funds from the Union government and that will mean better exposure for the national teams and hopefully grassroots development.
It could also mean picking up the stick by the very young in whose hands lie the future of the sport, feared to become fast irrelevant in the sphere of youth.
Globally, India’s bronze medal must feel like gold. Especially for the FIH. The massive reaction and its impact on TV and digital figures must stave off, for a while at least, the threat of axing hockey from the Olympics or the replacement of the 11-a-side game with the Hockey 5s.
The dual success of the men’s and women’s (who play GB for the bronze medal on Friday) teams has brought an incredible reaction from a hitherto hidden fan base that will make hockey’s claim as an integral part of the Olympic movement or “the jewel in the Olympic crown” once referred to by IOC president Thomas Bach.
1 Comment
There is no doubt winning the bronze is an incredible achievement and will greatly help hockey in India. Money will pour in, TV viewership will skyrocket and hockey players will become stars.
However, in all this positivity let me add a word of caution. Our neighbor Pakistan won a silver medal in the 1990 World Cup, a bronze in the 1992 Olympics and won the 1994 World Cup. All this success could not stop the decline of Pakistan hockey. Look at where it stands now
So, to avoid that fate two things are needed-1 Momentum of victories needs to be maintained. 2 New fans need to be created.
Hockey 5s can help greatly in both. It is a format designed for TV audiences and India did very well in the only international competition it played in, two silver medals at 2018 youth Olympics.
The temptation in the aftermath of our success in Tokyo wold be to forget about hockey 5s and focus solely on hockey 11’s. Maybe even revive the Hockey India League which collapsed due to poor ratings.
I think that would be a blunder over the long term. Hockey needs both hockey 5s and hockey 11’s. Hockey 5s will help in growing the sport in schools and colleges. It will create new fans on TV because it is simpler to understand than regular hockey and it offers more continuity of play.
Hockey 11’s is safe in the Olympics. Nobody is taking it out for a long, long time. Maybe never.
Instead we could see two versions of hockey at the Olympics. Hockey and hockey 5s. After all, basketball 3s, beach volleyball etc have shown the way.