KSHA Secretary aims more crowd for its League matches

Karnataka State Hockey Association wants more people to watch its flagship event titled this year as Ozone State Super Division League. So, it decided inter alia to host at least a match under floodlights.

“We hope this helps in filling the 7000 capacity stadium. If it will, there will be nothing better than this”, says a smiling K Krishnamurthy, KSHA Secretary.

But not many of us aware the costs of a floodlight match.

“It costs Rs.10000 to run the generator to light up the floodlights for a few hours”, Krishnamurthy, known in hockey circles as Kitta, lets us know.

Bangaloreans will get to watch a match each under flood lights on the last nine days of the ongoing League.

KSHA’s Super Division League has come a long way, and of late after struggling to secure proper turf on its Stadium in Shantinagar.

www.stick2hockey.com catches up with Kitta to get into a bit of recent developments and history of the ongoing League.

Originally known as Champions League, it was hosted by then Mysore State Hockey Association.
“In the past we had vibrant teams like Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) which couldn’t sustain the test of time. One of the reasons is openings in the Public Sectors and the disinterest for sports by the new managements”, Kitta explains for those who want to catch up with a bit of history of the league.

These downward trend must pinch Kitta, for the simple reason he himself played for the RBI in his career.

In the last couple of years, the league faced logistic problems due to protracted renovation works in the KSHA stadium, only venue adorned with synthetic turf in the city, though another one exists at distant suburb.

The previous edition was held at Madikeri, Coorg and it posed a big challenge as mainly this is not an invitational tournament, and because of the KSHA doesn’t provide for the accommodation for the teams.

That is where it became a challenge for Bangalore based teams.

However, KSHA has flexible rules that help the league attain a shred of vibrancy.

KSHA, unlike other State Hockey Associations, don’t restrict institutions in participating in other leagues of the country.

“Any institution can enroll with us as life member, and become eligible to participate in our Leaue”, says Kitta.

The 2011 League comprises of 11 teams with leading major domestic teams making an appearance. Be it the Oil companies like IOCL, BPCL, or the Army teams like Army Red, Army Green, Maratha Light Infantry and Army Service Corps, they all are here; other teams being Namdhari, Fortis, MEG, SAI and Air India. Amongst these MLI and MEG make it to the SDL from the SLD-Phase 1, where seven teams played against each other.

“We are interested to get more teams like ONGC, IOB Chennai, Punjab & Sind Bank and others”, reveals Kitta his roadmap for future.

This year around, it boasts of new entrants like star-studded Air India and Namdharis who make a comeback after a year’s gap.

The budget of the league runs up to Rs.10 lac with about half of which going as the prize money including individual prizes.

This year winners of the League will get upto Rs. 2 lac, Rs. 1.5 lakhs to the runners up and 50k for the third ranked team. Over a span of 22 days, SDL will play 55 matches without a single day break, on a round robin league format. The high-octane matches between the top-notch teams will be played under flood lights from 21st to 29th Jan, thereby promising high level entertainment to the spectators.

“It’s not easy to collect this much money for a League” Krishnamurthy, who achieved this, lets us know.

“It’s only for the first time we have got a title sponsor who has been given 80-85% advertisement space in the ground. Only a good public turn-out at the stadium will bring some satisfaction to the organizers” the KSHA Secretary repeats with an expectant expression on his face.

Young generation nowadays are attracted towards new genres like IPL, PHL variety; therefore, it remains to be seen how a traditional league such as this will stand out in the coming days.

Watch out this space for how far the dream of Kitta takes shapes on the ground.