Promote Indian hockey, it needs a leg up: Players
Joel Joseph, TNN
GURGAON: Even though the threat of not being able to play for India ever again looms large, players of eight teams are raring to participate in the inaugural World Series Hockey (WSH) championship that starts on Wednesday. The ongoing brilliant performances by both the national men’s as well as women’s hockey teams at the Olympic qualifiers have only propelled the teams to participate in this series.
According to sources, the players who participate in the WSH are likely to meet the same fate as the ones who participated in the Indian Cricket League (ICL).
“Like it was the case in cricket, the same is with hockey at present. The World Series Hockey is being backed by the Indian Hockey Federation and not by Hockey India, the body that conducts international tournaments in India. And therefore the players who are playing in the WSH are likely to get into the bad books of Hockey India and might never be able to play for the country again. This is similar to what BCCI did to players who were a part of ICL instead of IPL,” said a source.
However, the Delhi team captain tried to allay such fears at a press meet in the city on Saturday.
“All that we want is that hockey as a sport should be promoted. It is up to the authorities to decide what course of action they would like to take regarding those players who are playing in this series. At the end of the day, I think nobody wants the national sport to get affected,” said Rajpal Singh, former India captain.
Apart from Delhi, there are seven other teams – Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Bangalore, Bhopal, Chandigarh and Punjab. Each team will play 14 matches and the event will end on April 2. The first two matches by the Delhi team will be played at the Dhyan Chand National Stadium in Delhi.
The Delhi captain was also critical about the way the officials are promoting youngsters in the Indian team.
“One of the main reasons why cricket is more famous than hockey is because the way senior players are treated and are retained in the team. The same does not seem to happen in hockey these days where an increasing number of seniors are being asked to leave on issues like fitness, among other non-serious issues. The other important aspect that should not be ignored is that the captain should have a say in the team selection and should be consulted in important issues pertaining to the team. One of the reasons I had to resign was because of this,” he said.
Rajpal is among the few senior players who were asked to leave since they were not considered fir anymore. He, however, said that he was very fit and that his team will win the series.
There are two foreign players in the side – Philip Sunkel from Germany and Shakeel Abbasi from Pakistan. The German player, a former captain himself, stressed on the need for the players to be more defensive. “Indian players tend to be more aggressive and concentrate more on offence and therefore the defence is left fragile. The other thing is that they don’t pass the ball as often as they should and have a tendency to keep the ball with them and score the goal. However, I am going to stick to my game plan and I am looking forward to playing next year as well,” said the centre forward.