IHF, HI standoff heading for trouble

M.S. Unnikrishnan

The face-off between the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) and Hockey India (HI) is heading towards a nasty finish, as both parties are unwilling to give ground in a do-or-die fight. The IHF is determined to go ahead with the World Series Hockey (WSH) League, though HI has cried foul. The latest revelation that Ashok Mathur got elected as the IHF secretary through “forgery” has added fuel to the fire.

According to a letter from Gujarat State Hockey Association secretary R.V. Shelar to director in the Sports Ministry, Deepika Kachhal, on January 1, “Ashok Mathur was representing the Gujarat State Hockey Association that was illegal, because we are not sending any representative from the Gujarat State Hockey Association”.

“Moreover, Mr. Ashok Mathur belongs to Delhi and he is the secretary of the Delhi Hockey Association. He is not working anywhere in Gujarat. So he made a forgery,” the letter claimed.

The FIH had recently given an ultimatum to the Sports Ministry that it should recognise HI as the sole body for the game in India as it did not approve of the IHF-HI truce at the behest of Sports Minister Ajay Maken. In a letter to the ministry on September 27, FIH President Leandro Negre had threatened that India will forfeit the right to compete in FIH-sanctioned tournaments, including the London Olympics, if the ministry did not recognise HI as the sole body for hockey administration.

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) then called a meeting of the two bodies to work out a solution but nothing came of it, despite IOA acting president Vijay Kumar Malhotra’s plea to the parties that they should discard their rigid posture to enable Delhi to host the Olympic qualifiers in February. He said the country’s prestige had already suffered when the FIH pulled out the Champions Trophy from Delhi and allotted it to New Zealand.

But the IHF reportedly maintained a strident stand, saying that it would go ahead with the WSH and India qualifying for the Olympic Games was not of much consequence to it. It argued that the WSH would bring money for the federation as well as the players and it would also spread the hockey culture across the country. IHF also wanted the IOA to restore its recognition, which the apex Olympic body had withdrawn, after Hockey India was formed to host the World Cup in Delhi in 2010.

The charge against IHF was that it was responsible for India failing to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, for the first time in 80 years. HI also accused IHF of ruining the game, as it was during its rule that India performed “abysmally” in the World Cup, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games in 2006, finishing 11th, 6th and fifth respectively. HI took credit for the recent revival of the game, claiming: “The team performed much better under Hockey India in the next edition of all these Games in 2010, as they finished 8th, silver medallist and bronze medallists respectively at the World Cup, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games. Recently, India won the elite men’s Asian Champions Trophy at Ordos (China), beating Pakistan in the final.”

But what has irked HI most is IHF’s insistence of going ahead with the WSH, weaning away the top players by promising them huge financial gains. HI, on its part, announced that it would hold an international men’s league, under the aegis of the FIH, from 2013 and has requested for a 45-day window in the international body’s calendar to conduct this event. HI said the WSH will upset the National camp for the Olympic qualifiers, as the event will be clashing with the proposed series.

IHF’s stand is that if IPL in cricket and leagues in football and basketball could succeed, it saw no reason why WSH should not be a success, which will get the players a bigger financial deal. Now it seems only the Sports Ministry can leverage some positive response from the IHF, as the WSH would not take off without the ministry’s support.

The ministry has called a meeting of all the three stakeholders of hockey — IOA, IHF and HI — on January 14 to thrash out a formula which would be acceptable to the FIH, so as to ensure that the Olympic qualifiers remain in Delhi. The ministry can bring the IHF to its knees if it refuses to allow stadiums under the Sports Authority of India to host the WSH. The BCCI could kill the nascent Indian Cricket League (ICL) which was starved of grounds, as all the main cricket grounds are owned by its State affiliates.

That was why the BCCI could make the IPL a roaring success, as it had the necessary infrastructure to host these matches. But the same is not the case with the WSH. Very few hockey associations boast of owning hockey stadiums and most are under SAI. So the ministry can put a spanner into IHF’s WSH works. But so far, the IHF has maintained a defiant stand and was determined to go ahead with the series, though the HI insists that WSH will have “serious implications for both players and officials, who participate in this (FIH)-unsanctioned event”.