Counting on the 9’s

Hockey has been looking to cricket to garner ways in which to draw television audiences. And this week, it stands on the verge of what it hopes will be its Twenty20 moment. The Hockey 9’s event in Perth will see smaller teams on the field, bigger goals and shorter halves in the hope that more goals and pacier action will keep spectators riveted. Coaches certainly are enthused, and they stress that the more attacking game this format demands could benefit the Indians and Pakistanis, and make the subcontinent’s entertaining style more viable — less players on the field could give them more space to build on their dribbling skills.

Unlike in many other sports, hockey’s administrators tend to be quick to act upon impressions that the game is getting boring or tedious. It has not relied on the switch to astroturf alone to speed up the game. Rolling substitutions, the no-offside allowance and the self-pass reform were all made with an eye to curtail stoppages and to keep the scoreline ticking. Wails of purists yearning for a golden past have not detained hockey, and with the game spreading geographically teams have had to keep up or be knocked out — as India found out when they failed to qualify for the 2008 Olympics.

And the Olympics are key. That’s the big prize hockey players dream of — nothing else comes close. So, unlike in cricket, where, at least for now, different formats coexist, hockey teams are likely to tailor their preparations for the Games. Unlike cricket, hockey may not have the space to put out different rules for different competitions.