MAHATMA Gandhi was a man of vision. In 1932, a group of people approached Mahatma asking him to help in the fund-raising for the Indian hockey team’s participation at the Olympics. “What is hockey?” the Father of Nation is reported to have asked.

Fast forward yourself to 2032. The very same question “What is hockey” is sure to be asked.
That India won eight gold medals at the Olympics, won the World Cup once and the Asian Games gold twice (perhaps even more in each of these by then) will be facts to be told by grandmothers to doubting grandchildren who will ask if there really existed game called hockey. They are bound to ask “Were Dhyan Chand and Roop Singh real life characters” the same way they might now be asking “Was there really a Princess Fiona who was waiting for her Prince Charming”.

True lovers of Indian hockey might find these situations hypothetical and even outlandish. But even the signs of death and decay of what once was India ’s flag-bearer at the Olympics are obvious.

If hockey is the sport a population of more than 100 crores pins its hopes on during the Olympics, the administration has done very little to enhance the reputation. On the contrary, there’s been a concerted approach to kill the goose that lays the golden medal. There’s been a serious attempt to run the sport in the most whimsical manner that might put even the barbaric pre-stone age man to shame in terms of organisation.
Coaches are changed like shirts in summer; transparency in administration is a forgotten concept; dictatorial quirks of a single individual rule the roost, with the spine-less group that exalts this man calling the shots; ad-hocism is the order of the day as ‘the best man’ today can overnight turn ‘the worst man’. In short, the I in the IHF stands more for the first person usage in English grammar rather than the actual meaning of Indian.
Olympian Aslam Sher Khan has been recently quoted on website saying that “the team (for the Athens Olympics) is in top condition and a very confident young side.” Such words of wisdom from a man who is a part of the selection committee is only expected, but not very long ago the former Parliamentarian had gone on record to say that “India can’t do anything without a player from Bhopal.” All such acts and words of patriotism for Bhopal changed the moment the IHF appointed him the manager to an important tournament and subsequently as a selector. Rather unfortunate that Aslam, who called his autobiography ‘To Hell with Hockey’, too should toe the line. Perhaps Aslam knew within his heart ‘nothing can be changed’ because the IHF is run by a dictator and not a democratic process.

There’s an even more insipid incident in recent times that shocked the keen followers of Indian hockey, although it went unreported ‘in the best interest of the game’.

There was this overwhelming praise showered on Dhanraj Pillay reported in almost all the major newspapers (including Vijay Times) on how the Indian stalwart played a helpful role in the Indian team’s triumph at the Junior Asia Cup at Karachi . Coach of the team Harendra Singh was quoted as “thanking Dhan for the useful inputs” he conveyed over the phone during the half-time of the final. IHF president KPS Gill read these reports and within 24 hours of appointing Harendra as the coach of the development team that went to Gifu ( Japan ) demoted him. All because the IHF president thought, praise if any should’ve been showered on him rather than any other individual.

There’s this other incident on how ad-hoc the IHF is being run. During one of the Annual General Meetings in recent years (Now that such meetings are conducted itself is a rare happening), one of the few committed men raised questions about a particular entry in the Income & Expenditure Account. Even before the question could be completed, the rest in the Executive Committee passed a resolution to clear the accounts. Each of this support group has been rewarded handsomely with plum posting for international tournaments, while the man who dared to raise a question has been pushed into the oblivion. All because the IHF president thinks there should be no questions asked.

The point of running hockey is not about how many coaches you change in the last decade or so. It’s not about how many medals the Indian won in international competitions. It’s not about how well the Indian played. Simply because there’s been no credibility attached with the IHF for quite a few years.

You can’t really blame tomorrow’s youngsters when they ask “Was it an amphibian or a mammal?” at the mention of hockey.

Courtesy Vijay Times

smageshwaran@hotmail.com