– By K.V. Venugopal
Junior WC Hockey In Chennai
Germany richly deserved to win the recent Junior Hockey World Cup held simultaneously in Chennai and Madurai recently. The host India though disappointed, when it failed to lift the trophy, but made the hockey lovers derive immense pleasure by capturing the bronze title in a thrilling penalty-shootouts against the formidable opponent Argentina. Of the 24 nations that participated in the coveted event, teams like Spain, Belgium, China and France, Netherlands, Australia, South Africa and Argentina, besides Bangladesh thrilled the spectators and sports lovers with their artistic display and ensured that they are a force-to-reckon with in future tournaments, too.
In the final, it was a sea-saw battle between Germany and Spain, before the former prevailing in the penalty pushes. However, almost all teams disappointed the connoisseurs of the game with their poor conversion of penalty corners into the goal. It was not surprising when it was invariably found that one out of five PCs was converted by most of the teams, with India, too, joining the fray, sans the Germans. The secret behind Germany’s victory was their oneness, as their head coach saw to it that their players indulge in conversations among themselves about the nuances of the game and unsettling the opponents often to avert any misunderstanding between them. The team moved like a well-oiled machine with a dour-behind the defence and a motor-behind the attack strategy, which fetched them rich dividends ultimately.
It is an incredible achievement for Germany, as of the 14 world cup tournaments, they could win ten times around. Importantly, the German custodian Jasper Ditzer, who was awarded the goalkeeper of the tournament, did not lose his sight or focus even once and constantly encouraged his team-mates with renewed vigour and bubbling enthusism with a constant reminder that the game was not lost till the final hooter. Like in Football, Germany believes in never-say-die spirit in Hockey, too, and taught the other countries about their instincts and the inclination to rotate the strike, much to the chagrin and discomfiture of their opponents.
Hurricane hat-trick twice By Casper Van Der Veen
Casper Van Der Veen of Netherlands was awarded the player of the tournament for scoring a hurricane hat-trick twice. India played well throughout the tournament, but their complacency and laidback approach at times let them down in the semi-finals. For instance, in their league encounter against Belgium, they almost lost the match from the winning spree with a minute to go as their waywardness led the opponents made an inroad before restoring parity in the dyeing seconds of the full time. If India prevailed in the penalty shootouts, full marks to the goalkeeper, Princedeep Singh, who with his intrinsic ability and uncanny anticipation made some acrobatic saves, besides making sure India’s qualification for the knock-out stage without much hiccup. It was quite natural for the Indian chief coach, P.R. Sreejesh to admonish them after the match and imparted the players the essential requirement of creating and converting half-chances into goals.\
The Indian coach’s bombardment had an electrifying effect in the quarter-finals against Argentina when India after conceding two goals in the first-half, bounced back in the second-half to score four goals to reach the last four-stage with convinction. The Indian team led by Rohit rose to the occasion and fired all cylinders when the chips were down, and not to forget the valiant efforts of the goalkeeper Singh in inculcating confidence to the forwards, as well as to the defenders whenever the team’s morale was at its low-ebb. However, the team’s efforts went vain in their semi-final clash against Germany. Hardly had the cheers died down, the Germans swung into the attack and before the hosts could recover, the inevitable occurred as the visitors surged ahead with three goals at lemon-time. Even after the resumption of play in the second-half, the Germans did not allow the hosts to heave a sigh of relief by converting the fourth goal and almost made it doubly sure that reaching the final was only a foregone conclusion. Though, India managed to salvage the prestige by reducing the margin, their joy did not last long as the Germans romped home their fifth and final goal with minutes to go for the final whistle.
The Tamil Nadu Government and this Mammoth Tournament
The Tamil Nadu government and the sports development authority of Tamil Nadu need to be commended for conducting the mammoth tournament in a fine-tuned manner and indicated in no uncertain terms that they are ready to organise such tournaments in future, bearing in mind the sports-minded culture that is associated with the people of the state. For instance, Tamil Nadu had also recently conducted the world squash tournament successfully. Coming back to hockey, the daunting task is ahead of the Indian team, as they will be participating in the world cup qualifiers to be held in Hyderabad next year for the prestigious tournament to be staged in Belgium and Netherlands for a fortnight that begins from August 15, next year. Hockey India is also expected to host the pro-league fixtures next year. India should also gear up for the Asian Games to be staged in Japan from September 19 to October four, next year.
Hockey India is staging the premier league for men and women. The competition for men would begins on January three next year and ends on January 26 to be staged in Chennai, Ranchi and Bhubaneswar, whereas the women would begin their journey from December 28 this year for a fortnight tournament that culminates on January 10, next year. The progress of our teams would be assessed by the Hockey India president, Dilip Tirkey, a player of repute in the past and a former Rajya Sabha member. He is also ably assisted by Sekar J. Manoharan, treasurer of HI and president of Tamil Nadu Hockey association and other prominent officials. Interestingly enough, Tayyab Ikram, the president of the International Hockey Federation has rendered a yeoman service for the promotion of the sport and is destined to play a stellar role during the course of time.
With array of tournaments in progress, Hockey has made rapid progress and commanded awe and inspiration from the spectators. It is high time for the Indian Hockey Federation and the Hockey India to come together and address the welfare of players in the long-run, as hockey, a national sport in India, is destined to make a world of difference to the sports-hungry fans, not only in India, but all over the world. R. Sriman, the former sports editor of Times of India made a valid point, “If the legendary cricketer, Don Bradman is a monument for Australia, Dhyan Chand is no less indispensable for India”, on the occasion, marking the unveiling of the statue of the mercurial hockey wizard in Lucknow in the past. It may be recalled that in the Los Angeles Olympics in 1928, Dhyan Chand’s stickwork had mesmerised the Americans and when the in-born genius repeated his commendable feat at the Berlin Olympics in 1936, Adolf Hitler invited him to settle down in Germany and to bring more laurels for the nation. However, being a patriot to the core, Dhyan Chand politely declined his offer and made other Indians realise that monetary gains must pale into insignificance and we should pride ourselves in representing our motherland that was brought by our father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi in 1947 with utmost difficulty.
India Needs Another IPL For Hockey
Needless to say, the Hockey India can organise a tournament, similar to the Indian Premier League in cricket that fetches more than enough money for players. However, what they need is to attract the sponsors, besides generating revenue from the advertisers to make it commercially viable. However, it is a daunting task indeed, as the harsh reality is that other sports in India do not attract the masses like cricket, which is more or less looked at as a religion in our country. For instance, the Australian cricketer, Cameron Green was purchased for Rs 25.20 crore in the IPL auction recently by the franchisee Kolkata Knight Riders, which would be well-nigh-impossible for a hockey player to even dream of. Similarly, another franchise, Chennai Super Kings had purchased two budding youth, Prashant Veer and Karthick Sharma by incurring Rs 14.2 crore each. Not to be left undone, Royal Challengers of Bangalore, the defending champion, roped in the dashing batsman, Venkatesh Iyer for Rs seven crore, which is unthinkable in other sport.
There is no iota of doubt that the Board of Control for Cricket in India has initiated measures to assist other sports like football and hockey, but the BCCI cannot be held responsible, if other sport federations do not function in a transparent manner, similar to cricket, whatever may be the short-comings of some cricket assciations. It is a pity indeed to learn that the All India Football Federation is suffering from acute financial crunch, as the star-sports promoter, Reliance Group has made it crystal clear that they would not telecast the Indian Super League this year, due to lack of response on the commercial front. Left with no other option, the Supreme Court has asked the Central Government to address the ventilated grievances of the AIFF in right earnest. Gone were the days when India won the gold in Football in the inaugural Asian Games in New Delhi and bronze subsequently in the 1966 and 1970 Asian Games at Bangkok.
