The merger that is not; even as IHF makes inroad

Whether we add medals to our kitty or not, whether we add quality players to our national team or not, we are adept at adding organizations. Indian Hockey Confederation 2000), IHF since long, to Ad-Hoc committee (2008) to Hockey India (2009) and then now (2011) now a neo-avtar, Joint Executive Board (JEB).

The national ethos gets another boost as Monday Mania turned out to be. Let us see as it is.

A working arrangement has been the result of a marathon discussion that had been held by the three parties – Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Indian Hockey Federation and Hockey India – on Monday. The agenda was how to move forward after HI and IHF had yesterday informally decided not to disrespect the merger deadline – today – set by the frustrated Ministry after previous protracted process failed in the last minute last week.

So, in the end, the merger is not there but at least a working mechanism is. Now a mammoth 39-member Joint Executive Board will be formed in a week’s time, which will be guided by an 8-member Joint Working Committee. The JWC will have four members each from HI and IHF, with Chairman and Co-Chairman and will have a life of one and half years, that is, till December 2012.

If you forget the numbers and the personalities hidden behind them, the emerging arrangement is nothing but an analogous, near replica of previous mechanism that was in place since a deacde — Indian Hockey Confederation (IHC) — with, of course, equal representation from men and women sides.

By forcing to resurrect an IHC sort of mechanism, the IHF has scored a moral victory. And this has come about against the much-talked about and worried about, and menacingly growing HI and FIH nexus.

Had the IHC mechanism, which served all the constitutional purposes from 2001 to 2008 — been honoured in letter and spirit further, the current impasse that lasted for about three years and still refuses to fade away, or at least till the next Olympics, would not have arisen at all.

After the dysfunctional IHF was dissolved in April 2008, a new set of office bearers would have been elected – perhaps Sahara’s Jr. who had winnable numbers backing him one point of time. We would have got a new president, a whiff of fresh air coming into the otherwise stagnated IHF.

If only the FIH did not poke its nose. But that did not happen. Things went from bad to worse, thanks to ambitious Suresh Kalmadi who was supposed to be the protector but in fact turned out to be a predator.

Now the gentleman is behind the bars and is claiming dementia (memory loss)to escape from prision!

The absence of Master Manipulator has altered the situation – this is where the IHF got a fresh lease of life, began exerting pressure in sync with fast approaching World Series Hockey dates.

Facing charges of financial irregularities, read 2010 World Cup, and other legal threats from the IHF stable, the FIH must have been woken up to challenges for which it is hardly used to. That the body, a month before, had to accede to partial sanctioning of WSH, which it loves to hate, conveys one thing. The FIH is not ultimate in hockey affairs and it can be malleable and tactile. The FIH’s sudden brainstorm of ‘Sanctioned and Unsanctioned events’ which even seeks to own street hockey, exposed its frustration, hallowness and utter un-professionalism in its thought and action.

Fishing in troubled waters is everybody’s right, so also the FIH’s. But to stir constantly a still water body to fish in, is nobody’s birth right. The FIH must have learnt this hard lesson from India, read IHF and Nimbus. It never wanted IHF to exist, and bent backward to make it happen. The JEB mechanism, though Indian official letter head will be in its baby’s name (Hockey India), is a blow to the FIH’s manipulative skills or lack of it.

I strongly feel, therefore, the FIH will take the Monday Settlement with a pinch of salt — and it has no option than to swallow the bitter bill.

The IHF gets governmental nod, and is back into reckoning. The body gets a say first time after it was dissolved in 2008.

So, Monday is resurrection day for the IHF.

The question here is, will this mark resurrection of Indian hockey?

Here, at this juncture, we see the big picture.

Will the IHF’s return, which enlarges the image of KPS Gill, augur well for hockey?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Secondly, having smelt success the IHF is not going to let the hard-fought lead down in coming days, where finding State representative is going to be as elusive as ever. Especially, HI which has successfully implemented One-state One-Body formula, will now be on weak wicket as it has mostly letter-head set ups.

Thirdly, as long as both HI and IHF are legal entitles — which Monday Settlement accentuates — hockey sport will take back seat, bloated egos will continue to dominate.

Fourthly, just for a minute forget about HI and IHF. Who are the people going to be in the JEB and JWC? Same people who ruled and ruined hockey in the last 20 years.

They changed the camps, sat on wheel chairs, but are counting in the hockey affairs even today. Say for instance, Pratap Satpathy. The Orissa Hockey Secretary asks who is Dilip TIrkey, he was with the IHF till recently. Now he is with HI, and is also one of the three HI signatories to the Monday agreement. Now the question is, be it HI or IHF, same set of people, who stymied hockey, still stick to it. These are the same people who have been there with hockey for as much as I know, and want to treat current players like Tirkeys as puppets in their regions.

And don’t forget both KPS Gill and Amrit Bose, above 70 and thus ineligible to be in the sports bodies in the first place, attended Monday’s meetings. So, times passed, memories lost, things changes, but these bogus actors survive. Hockey continue wallop.

Fifthly and ultimately, hockey refuses to inch forward, refuse to intake fresh faces like Sunil Mittal, and the present settlement perpetuates all that is bad with Indian hockey.

Only loser, to me it appears, is the FIH. And it was their own making due to over-enthusiasm.

I also don’t rule out quick exit of Pargat Singh from the scene, as it will be the priority of the man who holds the strings from backdoors, KPS Gill.

Already, Pargat’s own boss, the Sukhbir Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister — he is president of Hockey Punjab with Pargat as Secretary General — has given clean signal to host his rivals’ WSH in Amritsar and Jalandhar. Reality being this, Pargat wants to suspend five current players for attending a press conference!

Novices like him are other casualties of Monday Mania.

Now we all have to live with another of organization, JCB, for as much as it lasts before another mutation leads to another species!