Indian Express: In Raipur for HWL Finals Belgium hockey players have one eye on home

By Mihir Vasavda

In aftermath of Paris terror attacks, hockey stars from Europe, here to play the World League finals, constantly stay in touch with family and friends

Immediately after waking up, before entering the training ground and almost every couple of hours for rest of the day, Tom Boon has been sending a one-line text to his family and girlfriend back in Belgium. “Don’t do anything stupid. Stay indoors.”

Sportspersons are used to spending time away from families for a major part of the year while they compete in remote corners of the world. But talk to a Belgian player and he will admit that given a choice, he would want to be back home right now.

And although they insist that they’re focused on their preparations for the World League finals that gets underway in Raipur on Friday, the players can’t stop worrying about the goings-on in Belgium.

“Things are really, really strange. We are more or less in a war situation where every school, metros, most restaurants is closed because of the risk. So you mainly see just the army and police on the streets of Brussels,” says 25-year-old Boon, considered to be one of the best forwards currently in the world.

It has been 11 days since coordinated terror attacks killed 130 people in Paris. Investigations revealed that the attacks were plotted on Belgian soil, prompting a series of raids and arrests in Brussels, which emerged as a hub of such activities. The city has since been under ‘highest terror alert’, in a virtually lock down as fears for safety mounted.

The players look visibly distracted. They woke up Wednesday morning hearing about another hostage situation in North France, reported late Tuesday night. It spread immediate panic within the group. Fortunately, it wasn’t another terror strike. But quick calls were made to their loved ones back home, to hear their voice and ensure – rather hope – they are OK.

“It impacts us psychologically,” admits Belgium captain John-John Dohmen.”Paris is very close to our country. Also some terrorists came from our country so it’s a shock for us. The capital is closed. Nobody is going out. So it’s strange. I think police is arresting a lot of people so hopefully, it should be fine.”

Focused bunch on the field

Dohmen says it is not difficult to motivate his team for the matches, as they are a ‘focused bunch on field.’ Off it, though, all they’ve been doing since arriving in Raipur a couple of days back is following the news updates via social media and news channels.

“On field, you are thinking only about hockey and not about other things. But off the field, it’s difficult. We are following news every minute. It’s not easy to travel to another country while your family is back home. Belgium is very tiny country, the fear spreads rapidly,” Dohmen says. Boon adds:”I try to go on the internet every couple of hours to see what’s happening. My family, my friends, my girlfriend… they all are there. It’s pretty strange. I try to keep in touch with them as much as I can. That’s all I can do from here.”

The distraction has meant that Belgium aren’t well-prepared. The terror attacks delayed their league, which resulted in the team assembling late and getting little time to practice together. Security fears resulted in several sports events, including their club matches, getting cancelled.

For players, too, this has been a distressing phase. Most of them hail from Brussels or nearby suburbs. Boon, who has lived his whole life there says it resembled a ghost city for the last 10 days.

“It has impacted life in general. I have great memories from some of the areas that have become targets now. The city had a good night life. It was vibrant. But no one is going out now. For the first time, we are not comfortable in Brussels and not feeling safe,” says Boon, who played for Dabang Mumbai in the Hockey India League last (HIL) season and was the tournament’s highest-paid player. Dohmen prays the incident won’t tarnish the image of his country.

“I hope that doesn’t happen again,” Dohmen says. Boon’s phone, meanwhile, buzzes. It’s his family. The latest update is that things looked slightly better on Wednesday. But Boon is still wary.

His reply is the same like the last one week. “Don’t do anything stupid. Stay indoors.”