IHF set to hold WSH
Despite International Hockey Federation and Hockey India’s Negative stand, prize-money event to go ahead
M.S.Unnikrishnan
Despite the strident stand taken by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) that Hockey India be recognized as the sole body controlling the game for men and women in the county, the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) is going ahead with its big plans to hold the prize money World Series Hockey (WSH) League across nine venues in the country.
The FIH has threatened the Sports Ministry with disaffiliation of India from international hockey, if Hockey India is not given recognition as the sole body, and if permission is given to hold the WSH, which is not a FIH-sanctioned event.
The IHF received a shot in the arm when it got the go-ahead from the Sports Authority of India to hold the opening ceremony and some of the matches at the prestigious Dhyan Chand National Stadium in Delhi . The WSH, featuring eight teams and comprising 61 matches, will be held from December 17 to January 22. The WSH, promoted by Nimbus Sport, will have many innovative features, though the matches will be traditional in nature. Each match will be broken into four halves, with each session lasting 17 and half minutes. WSH will have a total prize purse of $2 million, with each player expected to receive not less than Rs 20 lakh.
It will be a multi-city franchise-based event, which will be an annual feature, if the first edition shapes up as is envisaged by the promoters of the event.
WSH technical director Dennis Meredith, a veteran hockey administrator who has the experience of being part of many Olympic, World Cup, Champions Trophy and Commonwealth Games, when he was with the FIH, said here during a presentation that the technical committee will consist of veterans like former India captain and national coach M.P.Ganesh, former captain Zafar Iqbal, former Indian Olympians Joaquium Carvalho, Ashish Balal, former Pakistan captain Shahbaz Ahmed and former chairman of the FIH Umpiring Committee Peter Von Reth. He said the WSH will give a big boost to hockey at the grass-root level across the country, and it would be more than a glamour event, which would be made commercially viable to benefit the players, host associations, the IHF and the sponsors.
“The objective is to make more and more people come and watch the WSH matches”, said IHF president R.K.Shetty and secretary Ashok Mathur.
Each of the eight teams will be allowed to recruit 25 players, though at any given time, only 18 players will occupy the bench, including 4-5 foreign players, during matches. And around 200 players will be distributed among the teams equitably, to create a level-playing field. There will also be video umpiring in all the matches to reduce the margin of supervising errors. Two matches will be played every day, starting at 7 p.m, and each match is expected to consume about 100 minutes. The final will be held in a best-of-three format.
The match venues would be Delhi , Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore , Hyderagaed, Bhopal/Pune, Chandigarh , Jalandhar and Amritsar .
“There is tremendous potential for hockey consumption in the country, and the WSH hopes to create a hockey legacy of holding international matches across the country”, added Yannick Colaco, COO of Nimbus Sport, which is sparing no effort to make the league an outstanding success. One tricky problem facing the WSH is the SAI decision not to release the senior Indian players for the WSH, who would be attending the national camp for the Pre-Olympic Tournament, slated to be held in Delhi in February-March next year.
“We are hopeful of getting the Indian players on board, as the WSH will be greatly beneficial for the players. It would give them the much-needed international match practice. Those who want Indian hockey to benefit and prosper would not oppose the national players’ participation in the league. This issue would be sorted out”, noted Ganesh with optimism. Ganesh added that no “petty politics” should be played to scuttle the WSH it would serve Indian hockey greatly.