Time for Hockey India to construct on Olympic success, introduce ‘central contracts’ for gamers | Hockey Information

NEW DELHI: Usually referred to as the poor man’s recreation, Indian hockey has come of age each on and off the sphere after the eye-opening Olympic miss in 2008. Although securing a job earlier than fascinated about an prolonged skilled profession within the sport nonetheless tops the precedence checklist of budding gamers — majority of who come from humble backgrounds, rewards for large wins like an Olympic medal or title triumphs have grown considerably.
To quote a fast instance earlier than wanting on the larger image, after Hockey India introduced a prize cash of Rs 15 lakh to every participant for the bronze medal win on the Paris Olympics, Madhya Pradesh set the tone for the state governments with a Rs 1 crore reward for the midfielder from Itarsi, Vivek Sagar Prasad, additionally a Deputy Superintendent of Police in MP.

(Vivek Sagar Prasad with MP chief minister Mohan Yadav – ANI Picture)
That is fairly a wholesome checking account within the identify of a 24-year-old participant from hockey — a sport during which coaches like Baldev Singh needed to put their financial savings into shopping for a four-wheeler and convert it to accommodate a complete group after which himself drive gamers to matches throughout Haryana and past.
And that also sounds higher than the crowd-funding that groups pre- and post-independence needed to do with a view to journey and compete on the Olympics.
This never-give-up perception highlights the connection the game has to the plenty. From the deep, nearly inaccessible, corners of the nation to the well-lit city neighbourhoods and plush metropolitan housing societies, everybody in India celebrates main hockey triumphs. The connection additional reveals in the truth that regardless of the dearth of assets, cash and amenities, mother and father by no means pulled their children out of dusty village hockey grounds.
Had that been the case, India wouldn’t have had a Rani Rampal, daughter of a cart-puller. Or a PR Sreejesh, whose father needed to pull out all stops to in some way handle a sum of Rs. 15,000 for a goalkeeper package in order that his son would not get taunted by his mates. Or a Neha Goyal, whose mom endured home violence, labored in a cycle manufacturing unit and nonetheless backed her baby to go and play hockey.

(Indian group on the rostrum at Paris Olympics after profitable bronze medal – AFP Picture)
In contrast to Pakistan, the place lack of Olympic and World Cup medals after 1994 mixed with poor governance despatched the game right into a darkish abyss, India swung into motion put up the period of erstwhile Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) to not simply enhance the administration in its new avatar as Hockey India, but in addition knock on the door of corporates and persuade them to help the sport.
Credit score additionally goes to the Indian PSUs and authorities models for persevering with to have hockey groups and thus create jobs that hold the gamers’ kitchen working whereas they give attention to honing their expertise — one thing that has evaporated throughout the border in Pakistan and proved detrimental to the youth’s curiosity within the sport.
The comparability with Pakistan is essential as a result of whereas India made an effort to adapt and evolve within the twenty first century after years of denial, Pakistan did not. And the result’s for the world to see.
Former HI president Narinder Batra’s alleged dictatorial methods of governance have typically been condemned, however he deserves credit score for bringing cash into the game since 2010. The help of the Odisha authorities proved to be a gamechanger because the state opened its coffers to sponsor the Indian nationwide hockey groups throughout ranges.
Company curiosity and funding gave beginning to the Hockey India League (HIL) in 2013, and the Junior World Cup was conquered in 2016, which had loads do with the availability chain put in place by the HIL, the advantages of which continued within the type of successive Olympic bronze medals — first in Tokyo, then Paris. Nonetheless, the World Cup stays a horse that the Indian group is but to saddle.

(Indian gamers doing lap of honour at Paris Olympics – ANI Picture)
The subsequent World Cup is in two years’ time, when India may have one other likelihood to make amends and provides Ajit Pal Singh’s 1975 champions firm. It is a disgrace that India hosted two successive males’s World Cups at residence and did not even make the semis with the gang behind them at jaw-dropping settings like Rourkela’s Birsa Munda Stadium and the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar. Now, they must do this on international soil — with Belgium and the Netherlands to co-host the 2026 version.
The subsequent two years will likely be essential in a couple of sense. The steadiness and consistency must be proven, by the gamers on the sphere and within the insurance policies framed by the federation. Sticking to a course of that has been efficiently put in place by coach Craig Fulton must be a given, a minimum of until the 2026 World Cup. Then the highway to LA 2028 might be reassessed.
As regards to gamers’ social safety, it was a great step taken by HI two years in the past, when it launched the coverage of annual money incentives, the place every enjoying member will get Rs 50,000 for each win registered by India’s senior women and men groups, whereas the help workers will get Rs 25,000.
With Olympic success, together with the historic fourth-place end by the ladies’s group in Tokyo, HI can take this stability to the following degree and introduce central contracts, like in cricket, and base it strictly on efficiency and never popularity. It may mark the start of India changing into the primary nation to have full-time skilled hockey gamers.

(PR Sreejesh, who retired after the Paris Olympics, climbed the goal-post after India’s bronze-medal win – ANI Picture)
In a podcast hosted by nnis on X (previously Twitter) after India’s bronze medal win in Paris, former India captain Arjun Halappa urged HI to noticeably think about this.
“I might like to see Indian gamers getting central contracts, the place some monetary assurance is assured,” stated the 2010 Asian Video games bronze medallist, who added that he and his former teammates had raised the problem again in 2009.
“It’s not about cash, it’s concerning the effort we (gamers) are placing in for the entire 12 months for the nation. If central contracts are available in, it is going to be an enormous game-changer for the game of hockey. It’s one factor I wish to see. We fought for it in 2009-10.”
Halappa stated it will finish the plight and dilemma of a younger hockey participant in India.
“Hockey gamers come from poor backgrounds principally, the place mother and father wrestle to make ends meet; there are neither research, nor cash. In the event that they go on to play for India (senior), then they’ll hope of securing a job, in any other case they discover themselves on the crossroads,” Halappa, who was a part of India’s victorious 2001 Junior World Cup-winning group, stated.

(Manpreet Singh, left, and Mandeep Singh being welcomed on arrival at their hometown Mithapur – AFP Picture)
HI might argue that the roles gamers safe as India internationals lend stability to their hockey careers. However the federation should not miss the purpose that it would not make them skilled gamers, which will not be a pattern within the sport internationally however one thing not many gamers will oppose. HI can cleared the path on this with the momentum of two successive Olympic medals for the primary time in 52 years and extra money within the financial institution in comparison with the nationwide federations of different main hockey-playing nations.
A grade-based central contract system will encourage gamers and enhance competitors for locations even additional as a result of higher, constant performers will likely be within the larger grade and thus earn extra.
Above all, it could actually carry a change within the age-old thought means of securing a job by changing into a world participant. A central contract, providing gamers an opportunity to earn extra, can take its place.
Nonetheless, it could actually’t be debated that the era of gamers a part of Indian hockey’s journey since 2010 have been properly taken care of. They’ve been appropriately rewarded, for 5 years in HIL (2013 to 2017) after which for his or her outstanding return to the Olympic podium in Tokyo and staying there in Paris. It is the following crop of gamers, somebody like Sanjay, Sukhjeet, Abhishek and Raj Kumar Pal, that HI must make really feel safe about their future as an India participant.

(ANI Picture)
The second version of the HIL, anticipated to roll out by the tip of this 12 months, will as soon as once more lay the muse of that safety and making gamers hockey professionals. Hopefully, the league can even give India extra Mandeep Singhs that go on to change into Olympic medallists and re-establish the availability chain that acquired snapped in 2017. And a central contract stepping into the combo will make these gamers ‘fearless’ in each sense.
As a hat-trick of Olympic medals beckons, it might be a game-changing begin to the post-Sreejesh period on the highway to LA 2028.