It was a great day for Indian hockey. The Indian Olympic Association president, Suresh Kalmadi, and international Hockey Federation (FIH) president Els van Breda Viresman, signed a six-page memorandum of understanding (MoU), concerning the 2010 men’s Hockey World Cup to be held in New Delhi, at the Hockey Stadium in Beijing, where the Olympic event is underway.
Several representatives from the FIH, the IOA and other delegates from the Sports Ministry, including Secretary Sudhir Nath were present during the occsion of signing the document.
According to the MoU, the Hockey World Cup, to be held in October 2010, will be jointly hosted by the FIH and IOA and all the profits accruing out of the event will be shared by both parties. However, the share of the FIH will be ploughed back into the development of the game in India.
As per the MoU, both Kalmadi and Els will be the joint chairman of the Organising Committee and they will soon be setting up a managing committee that will take care of marketing the event in India. “We are looking into the legality of setting up such a committee which will be based in India and look after all the marketing aspect of Hockey World Cup 2010,” said the FIH president addressing the media.
Asked if it would be a limited company of sorts, she said FIH will not be in a position now to reveal the details but it would be done soon after talking to the legal experts in India. “We are already in touch some with legal luminaries and once everything is finalized we will come back to you,” she added.
Kalmadi, addressing the media, said that the World Cup would be staged in March 2010 and it would help the Commonwealth Games Organisnising committee a chance to assess the facilities before the October Games. “We will have 17 disciplines in the Games and have a lot of test events before the October Games. And this Hockey World Cup would be one of them. Our boys have really done well in the recent months and things in hockey are moving in the right direction,” he said.
Promising Else that India would be a force to reckon with by the London Olympics, Kalmadi said that our boys will aim to win gold in London. Kalmadi also said that the sports ministry has already announced a number of astro-turfs to be laid in various parts of the country and it would help the game and the players improve standards.
“Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has released Rs 700 crore for the Games and the Sports Minister and his team have been very receptive to our demands. Now that we will go back India with at least three medals, including gold in shooting, the Olympic sports is picking up really well. We can only look ahead from here,” he said.
Kalmadi also said that he and his colleagues have been getting in touch with various hockey federation heads who are assembled here for the Olympics to tie-up various exposure and other exchange programme in hockey to improve the game in India.