*A mammoth ‘Support Hockey’ billboard was kept in each major colleges and universities, where students in numbers signed.

*Each day of the Punjab Gold Cup, an advertisement was inserted in leading dailies, giving details of entertainment program that will come up before and during the matches.

*At the stadium, about 500 T-shirts, bearing the logo of the Cup, was thrown in the crowd – each day.

*There were road shows on regular basis in the run up to, and also during, the tournament – and it was not just restricted to Chandigarh alone, but covering all major towns of Punjab.

*Some of the plays, song numbers, that were held in the lemon time were sourced through university and college parties.

If there was about 30,000 crowd on the final day for the Punjab Gold Cup, one cannot just dismiss, ‘oh Chandigarh is hockey crazy, people come there’ like stuff.

If it is the case then why hardly 200 turn up for Gurmeet Gold Cup, only Grade I tournament being held in the city.

It is not simply just that. The crowd had been made to come to the stadium. There was something worth for them to spend their evening at the stadium. This is the correct assessment.

Such a big crowd has come despite national television channels, leading local English newspapers giving a short shrift to the event in their sport pages.

People have been mobilized due to the sustained effort, envisioned by the Punjab Sports Department, put in action by Play Sports, an event management company.

It was gathered that major chunk of funds gone into the creature comforts of the teams – putting them in the only five star facility in the city (Taj) and providing airfare for the three visiting teams, all eating up Rs.1.1 out of 1.5 Crore allotment.

This is where the Punjab Gold Cup makes a difference.

When the news came that finally the Punjab Gold Cup will take off, there was really a concern that the red tape and adamant bureaucracy will spoil the show. This feeling was in sync with what has been going on in India in different walks of life.

However, salute the leadership of Pargat Singh, the brain behind the event, the Gold Cup was a success. Government babus were hardly interfering, each group was delegated different job with powers. Normally in India, whenever a tournament is held, it will be show of an individual, who will never delegate powers—and in that process mess up the things.

This was not there in Chandigarh. For the whole 11 days I was in Chandigarh, everyone did their job, no reference to Pargat or anybody was made in front of us. This was the same experience with others as well. With each group taking their own decision, things went smoothly. There was no domination of any individual in the entire duration, Pargat restricting himself to protocol requirements.

Oh yes, there is enormous scope for making further progress. Marketing has to improve, gates have to be introduced one day, invited teams have to bring their best talent. These are distant dreams. Some late decisions came in the way this time, which may not be in the future events.

But one can easily assert things are moving in right direction and are set to improve.

It was heartening a former player conceptualized the event, and saw to its success execution. We only wish some more former Olympians too do what Pargat has done in a professional way in the Punjab Gold Cup.