Indian hockey is in the news these days and a lot of it has to do with the enhanced sponsorship it will be getting from the Sahara group.
For people like me who have still not lost hope in Indian hockey, the Sahara press release was exciting. It talked of a 170 per cent increase in sponsorship, which sounded huge.
Yet, when one sat with a calculator to check what it meant, the increase in sponsorship was from `3 crore per year to `8 crore per year. Compare it with the `3.34 crore per international match which the Indian cricket board has been getting from Sahara, and there cannot be a starker contrast.

India have fared well under coach Michael Nobbs
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To be sure, only someone foolish will compare cricket with any other sport in the country. We are often told that hockey is our ‘national game’ though this statement needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.
In the good old days when we won Olympic gold medals with flourish on natural grass, Dhyan Chand was the true hero. He symbolised success and grace and how the Western world was mesmerised by his magic with the hockey stick.
As the statue of the man greets you at the National Stadium in the Capital, you wonder whether Indian hockey can flourish again. Let’s be sure of one thing, nobody played hockey in the old days for money.
Hockey was a passion, a junoon as they say, for many who wield the stick. Today, to complain that Hockey India cannot pay its players handsome money is nonsense. One must never forget that in terms of popularity, mass reach and TV viewership, hockey can never be compared with cricket.

Former player A.B. Subbaiah
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Yet, if Sahara is spending money on hockey, it needs to be welcomed, irrespective of the figures being spent. We all know that had it not been for the Indian government’s funding, we could have never afforded a foreign coach.
Be it Jose Brasa or current guru Michael Nobbs and his support staff, if they are here in India, it’s because of the cash support the government offers. In less than six days, the Indian men’s and women’s hockey teams will be competing in the Olympic qualifiers with hope in the heart.
The tears which Indian hockey fans shed in March 2008 cannot be forgotten as India lost to Great Britain in the Olympic qualifier in Chile. One scribe from India who had gone to cover the event still swears the umpiring then was biased and the Indians were being subjected to a lot of pressure.
In a way, this Indian men’s team is very lucky it is going to play the qualifier at home against a field which is not too tough. If you go by the international rankings, India are rated higher than their opponents – France, Italy, Canada, Poland and Singapore.

The experts say that Canada, once a potent force, is not the same. Pre-tournament predictions of India being in the final sound good, but the pressure is not going to be any lower. There are several advantages of playing at home and, having arrived in the Capital well in advance, the team is being nurtured by Nobbs. It is also a good sign that Nobbs has felt free to call in my favourite former India defender Dilip Tirkey and the soft-spoken former India goalkeeper AB Subbaiah to help out the team.

These two men carry with them loads of experience, so the Indian team will definitely benefit from their valuable tips. A lot has been written about the exclusion of Rajpal Singh and how in Sandeep Singh and Ignace Tirkey, we have two seasoned players who could play a big role in India’s campaign.

If one goes through India’s performance under Nobbs, it has been okay but not brilliant. While the frontline has the punch, the defence still comes under the scanner. Having won the Asian Champions Trophy last year in Ordos, China, the team then finished runner-up in the Champions Challenge I.

More recently, the team played against South Africa in a Test series and won three out of the five matches.
All this would tend to suggest Indian hockey is in fine health but we need to wait till the end of the Olympic qualifier to see how good we are. We have to win the final if we are to seal a berth at the London Olympics.

Old-timers I spoke to are not willing to hazard a guess and say they are keeping their fingers crossed. Nevertheless, if one is looking at the future of hockey in India in a macro sense, we must qualify.
The outrage after failing to qualify for the Olympics in 2008 hasn’t been forgotten. And if you compare hockey with other disciplines where Indians have qualified for London, it is clear this team must deliver.

We all know how hockey’s popularity has dipped and the nurseries in Punjab and Jharkhand see fewer people playing the sport. If hockey has to have a future in the country, India has to make the Olympics grade.
Nobody is going to watch or support a sport where we are not doing well. At the same time as the men’s team, the women will also be trying hard to qualify in a relatively tougher field. The big advantage is playing at home.

Good crowd support and finding rhythm early on will be crucial. Till then, let’s leave aside all talk of why hockey gets less in terms of sponsorship from the corporates.

source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ India / by S. Kannan/ February 12th, 2012