In the history of India hockey, Viren Rasquinha will not just be remembered for his sheer brilliance on the field but also for the innovative ideas he always had for the development of the game. He was one among the few who did not believe in just promoting the game in terms of performance, rather he believed that the sport also needs to be marketed well. That was precisely why he took an early retirement from the sport and decided to pursue further studies.
Now a successful CEO of Olympic Gold Quest, Rashqinha still misses hockey and the recent performance of the India team prompted the star of the yesteryear to fly down to Bhubaneswar for India’s semi-final countdown against arch-rivals Pakistan.
“India had a good performance this season. But, Pakistan has become a structured team as well. All in all, India definitely has an upper hand. But, it is a brand new game and you need to prove it on a given day. You can’t rely on past records. They mean nothing when you are on the field,” the former player says.
“I think India is more confident after beating two big European teams in two consecutive matches. Holland is world number two and Belgium is world number four. So, they have it in them to beat any team in 60 minutes.”
Chalking out a marketing strategy for the future of India hockey after remarkable year so far, he talks about creating role model and household names. ‘There is a great deal of emotional attachment of the people with Indian hockey because of the historical performance. It is a very crucial period because the Indian team is doing well after a long time and it has been a consistent year.”
“For me, the key role is to develop heroes and role models and household names. Even today if you ask a common man on the road to name a hockey player, he will perhaps name Dhanraj Pillay. Today may be a Sardar Singh is there. But we need to develop three or four such hockey heroes that even my mother will be able to recognize by both name and face. That is what we need to work for to take hockey to the next level in terms of popularity and getting more sponsors for the game,” the stylish CEO says.
Quick names on his list who can add to the hockey heroes category except Sardar Singh? “Sreejesh for sure. I think
Manpreet is a very good player. SV Sunil as well. Hockey is a team sport, so you need to create a balance between role models and keeping it as a team game.’