Where Indian hockey gone wrong!

MUMBAI: Two things come to mind in the current hockey impasse. At a hockey symposium at Mumbai Press Club a decade ago, MM Somaya, former India captain had said, “Indian hockey will not progress until the players learn to speak their mind.”

He had also said that hockey, as we know it played on grass and hockey as the west plays it, on artificial surface, called ‘Astro-hockey’ is a totally different sport. You can’t expect wonders from grass hockey players competing against those who play astrohockey from their youth.

Somaya, now on the committee of the Mumbai Hockey Association, would be happy to see current players speak their minds, the outcome of which has been evident with their getting their share of the cake, the logo money from Sahara India and also the performance incentives as in the corporate world.

Players speaking their mind in India was always going to be a tough act to follow. From time immemorial the players have been kept under the thumb by the powers-that-be.

In the 60s the refrain was ‘Join BSF play for India’. The top brass of the Border Security Force were heading the hockey federation.

Players picked from BSF proliferated at the expense of better ones from other regions. How could these employees of the BSF speak their minds?

Soon the refrain changed to ‘Join Indian Airlines, play for India’. How could players employed by the national domestic carrier speak against their bosses?

The oppression was evident on the field of play as well. “Saab ko do, Saab ko do” would be the chant heard when a Services team played.

It meant if an inferior rank player got the ball he had to release it to ‘Saab’, the higher ranked player even though some other player might be in a better position to take the move forward! How could the lower rank players in the Army, Navy or Air Force sides speak their minds in a situation where rank was pulled, as the expression goes, even on the field?

There were some players who spoke their mind but got their fingers burnt. Dhanraj Pillay made some noises and was targetted by the IHF bosses.

He was dumped at the first chance. Seeing his plight Dilip Vengsarkar, once sought him out in a party and gave him gyaan. “Always fire the gun from someone else’s shoulders” was Dilip’s advice to Dhanraj. He had told him they would sack him at the first chance which happened after the Asian Games triumph.

In the KPS Gill dispensation there was little hope of anyone speaking their minds, players, officials, even media a few of whom were bashed up when they asked uneasy questions at a meet in Delhi.

So the next question would be what would have happened if players had spoken their minds?

Well, plenty. They could have had better facilities. They could have had their National championship every year. There hasn’t been one for six-seven years now.

Players could have clamoured for cricket-style Test matches. And thereby hangs a tale.

One remembers an India-Pakistan series home and way in 1985 which drew packed houses. Another in 1988 which had Delhi and Lucknow stadia packed. Such matches would have brought money into the game. We may have had our Test players in hockey our India A players in hockey and payments, graded system, contracted players and all. But Test matches appear to be a ‘no, no’ for hockey.

By not having a Test match the county has deprived its youth of watching its national team play. How can they idolise their players if they don’t see them in flesh and blood? As a collegian I saw the brilliance of teenagers Ganesh and Govinda when they played for India in IHT 70 at a packed BHA Stadium under lights. Govinda’s reverse-flicks are still etched in memory long before the reverse hit (a time-consuming two-handed version) came from the west. But sad to say Mumbai hasn’t seen a hockey Test match since 1981.

Sunil Gavaskar’s Professional Management Group got Puma interested to sponsor an India-Germany Test series. When they approached the IHF they were told, “We don’t need you.” PMG had got Lever’s to sponsor a National Championship in Mumbai.

When a traditional cricket sponsor, Castrol, sponsored a National in Delhi the IHF didn’t bother to submit audited accounts of the same. The goose that would have laid the golden eggs of hockey had been scared way. No wonder Aslam Sher Khan said ‘To Hell With Hockey’ after seeing the hell that was and is hockey.