The early 1980’s were a time when many in India believe there was a changing of the guard.
India had won the 1980 Olympic hockey Gold medal in Moscow. It was their eighth Olympic Gold medal in 12 Olympiads; albeit against a weekend field due to a boycott. From 1928- 1956 they had won six consecutive gold medals. In 1947 the world witnessed the partition of India and the creation of two independent dominion states, India and Pakistan. In 1956 in Melbourne the Olympic final was played between the two nations. In 1960 and 1964 these same two nations faced off in the Gold medal match, each winning one each. Pakistan being the nation to bring an end to India’s dominance.
There are many in what is now Pakistan who feel that history has robbed them of some of their glory, as before partition many players from their country were part of those dominant Indian sides. This is one reason why the rivalry today is so intense when these two nations meet.
From 1956, when these two teams met in an Olympic final for the first time, Pakistan played in the next five Olympic Finals, where they won two gold medals.
In 1976 the Olympic Games were played for the first time on artificial turf, also by this time the stick design was changing. Factors that many in India and Pakistan believe impacted heavily on their game. There can be no doubt that India and Pakistan in the 1980’s was very different from the India of today, and the cost of laying artificial turf was prohibitive.
The Hockey World cup was first played in 1971 and Pakistan were the inaugural winners. In the first five editions Pakistan played in four finals and won three titles. India played in two and won one.
Neither side has played in an Olympic or World Cup final since 1984 and 1994 respectively, and both times Pakistan played in those finals. That World Cup win in 1994 was the last time either nation stood on the podium at either event.
For sixty years or more this region of the world had dominated the sport in the way Brazil had become the team to beat in football.
At the 1982 World Cup hosted by India the host nation finished fifth. Pakistan were crowned World Champions. At the 1984 Olympic Games Pakistan won Gold, India were fifth again.
In between those two events India won the Cricket World Cup in 1983. Importantly they had beaten the West Indies who were looking to win their third title in a row. Despite the West Indies bowling attack boasting the likes of Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Andy Roberts and Joel Garner they posted what was then a respectable score of 183. The West Indies batting line-up was again packed with talent, Gordon Greenidge, Demond Haynes, Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd, but Madan Lal and Mohinder Amarnath took three wickets each and India became world champions. It changed the sporting landscape in India forever.
That victory came at just the right time. As their once invincible hockey team was struggling their cricket team became the toast of the nation. Suddenly everyone wanted to play cricket for India rather than hockey.
Yet despite India’s decline on the hockey field, hockey still needed India. It needed India far more than many realised.
When India failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympic Games, the first time ever, no one was prepared to pay for the coverage of the hockey at the Games. Hockey was put on notice by the International Olympic Committee. So the powers that be realised that they had to help India return to the top of the pile. They also opted to change the look of the game. No longer were games two halves of 35 minutes, now there would be quarters of 15 minutes.
To try and assist in the resurrection of Indian Hockey the Hockey India League was created. It was sanctioned by the International Hockey Federation and saw the top players in the world signed up to play and be paid a salary commensurate with a professional athlete. It was an outstanding tournament, and the benefits soon became clear. India started to climb the world rankings; albeit at times thanks to hosting International events. Their junior side won the Junior Hockey World Cup in 2016. However regrettably a month later at the start of 2017 the last Hockey India League competition was contested.
In 2014 it was announced that the FIH and Star Sports had signed an eight-year broadcast deal that would see Start Sports in India “broadcast key FIH events both in India and throughout the world from January 2015 to December 2022.” Part of the deal was that “the world sport body will look to host a major event in India each year.”
However by 2017 the FIH opted to withdraw from the agreement and buy back the rights that they had sold to Star Sports. It is understood that Star were very accommodating with the terms of that agreement. Star had been contracted to sell international media rights for FIH events in all territories worldwide, except Argentina, and it was believed that this had not happened to the level that the FIH had hoped, and the extra coverage they had thought that they would receive had not eventuated. Kelly Fairweather who was the CEO who brokered the deal had by then left the FIH and his replacement Jason McCracken advised “We have negotiated a deal to buy our rights back. We are in the market to sell, and we are talking to a couple of potential partners, the big agencies, on that.” Sadly those potential partners never came through.
In the background at this time the International Hockey Federation were looking to launch a global league competition for the top nations around the world. It would be called the FIH Pro League.
At the Executive Board meeting held in Rio di janeiro during the 2016 Olympic Games, despite recommendations for the league to start with six teams the minutes state “it has been agreed to start with 7 and to add teams in the next round.” It was stressed that all participating teams had to be in a position financially to participate for four years. “Every team MUST be financially viable in order to take part.” The consensus amongst most of those working on the new league was that a seven team league was the preferred option.
At this meeting India’s participation was discussed, and there was surprise that they would only want the Men’s side to be a part of the new League. Yet as a qualification tournament for the World Cup and Olympics, India’s decision not to have the women play made perfect sense.
The FIH went back to Star Sports in India, as they had shown a commitment to hockey and they were the one television station that was prepared to pay a large sum of money for the rights.They would have the rights to the new League for both men and women, as well as the World Cups and Olympic qualifiers for both genders.
Understandably in the contract signed in 2013 Star Sports had written into the agreement the importance of having the presence of Indian teams in the major tournaments. They requested that the FIH make the best efforts to ensure that, so that it would appeal to their audience.
On May 11th 2017 the FIH issued a press release advising that President Dr Narinder Dhruv Batra, CEO Jason McCracken and TV & Broadcast Director Andy Oram held constructive discussions with Senior Executives from FIH Official Media Partner Star Sports. On May 24th the then CEO Jason McCracken in a video clip told hockey fans “last week I was in India with our key partner in the India region Star Sports and I am pleased to say that we have reconfirmed Star Sports as our media broadcast partner in the India region for the home and away cycle.
In the same video clip Mr. McCracken announced that the Board would be deciding the teams that would be selected to participate in what is now known as the Pro League at the June 8th Executive Board meeting.
On the 11th of June in London, McCracken revealed that nine teams would now be participating in the Pro League. Remembering that the preferred number had been seven and the recommendation had been six! So why the increase in participants? Despite a few raised eyebrows it is fair to say that there was excitement around the announcement, along with many asking how the sport could afford such a league.
Looking back there are two two dates that no one knew at the time would have a huge impact not only on the game, but also on the Pro League. They would also highlight how despite a lack of trophies hockey still needed India.
These dates were the 9th of July and the 18th of June. Another date could be added falling in the middle of the two, that of the 29th of June when Hockey India advised the FIH that there would be no Hockey India League in 2018. (No HIL Equals Hockey in Limbo)
On the 18th of June 2017 India defeated arch rival Pakistan at the Hockey World League semi finals 7-1. Following the game former Indian Captain Sardar Singh was called for questioning by the the British police over accusations made by a woman, who also alleged she was engaged to be married to him. The tournament was being played in London and Sardar was taken to Leeds for questioning. Understandably the Indian team was not happy.
No one was more upset than former Hockey India Chief and newly appointed FIH President Dr Narinder Batra. He took to social media to air his views. He prefaced those views with the following, “As an FIH chief I have no comments. But as an Indian and former Hockey India president, I am saying this in my personal capacity.” Dr Batra had been elected the first Indian President of the FIH in November of 2016.
His comments caused a great deal of angst among the FIH and also England hockey who were hosting the tournament. The comments were taken down and Dr Batra and the FIH issued a statement which in part read “The FIH would like to apologise for any offence that these comments may have caused. At the request of FIH, these comments have now been deleted and the matter will be reviewed internally in line with our governance processes.” On the 23rd of June the FIH announced that Dr Batra had written letters of apology to those who were upset by his comments.
On the 9th of July the FIH announced that India had withdrawn both their women’s and men’s team from the upcoming Pro League. Just 28 days after they had been announced as one of the teams in the new competition.
Many felt that the two events were closely linked. However the facts tend to point to the withdrawal being more to do with the Television deal brokered with Star and there are claims that correspondence had been going back and forth between Hockey India and the FIH since May, prior to the Pro League team announcement. If this is true why were the teams announced before this was resolved? The issue is believed to have been related to Hockey India missing out on television revenue as a result of the new deal. All of the National Associations selected for the Pro League had been asked to sign the participation agreement prior to June 30th 2017. Hockey India requested an extension as there were still issues to be resolved which had financial implications on their operations. They requested an extension until September 30th 2017. With the matter not resolved they withdrew.
Without India in the first year of competition, was going to hurt the FIH financially. Then in February 2018 the situation was compounded in a letter from the Pro League Management Panel concerns were raised that stated “The contract concerned is between the FIH and Star Sports and states that “the FIH will ensure that India participate in the Hockey Pro League…” and that “the FIH will use its best endeavours to ensure the participation of Pakistan.” (Looking For Answers)
Pakistan were selected to be a part of the League despite having to play all of their games away from home. In the end they too withdrew without playing a game, resulting the League being an eight team competition in year one. Their punishment should have been as per the terms and conditions of the participation agreement a ban from International competition. In June 2019 the FIH announced the following had been agreed between both parties, “this agreement consists of a settlement amount, with half of it to be invested by PHF in youth development and/or grassroots development activities in Pakistan within the next two years; these development funds will be monitored by the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) and reported to FIH with documentary evidence.” Prior to this announcement NTFS advocated that there should be no fine. (Fine? No Thanks) In April 2018 The FIH President was fined an undisclosed amount to be paid to charity for his comments.
In the past week the financials of the FIH for 2019 have been released and as expected the World body has suffered a loss, one of CHF633,000.The best explanation of the accounts is in an article on the Inside The Games website, the link is here. In 2018 the FIH had warned of a loss in 2019, but the withdrawal of India and Pakistan have clearly compounded that loss.
The report stated “TV production costs were underestimated while, at the same time, revenues from broadcasting deals were overestimated.” Clearly the lack of revenue from Star Sports for the Pro League left a huge hole. Yet was TV really the problem? For a second tier sport to have managed to sell the League to the number of television stations it did worldwide was a huge feather in the FIH’s cap. Especially as many sports are paying the production costs and simply giving the content to the TV stations to air for free. No matter how much each deal was worth at least there was revenue coming in. Clearly the incomings did not cover the outgoings. TV production standards dropped dramatically some staff were cut and others asked to take a pay cut, yet still there were losses.
More importantly many sponsors were brought on by the FIH for the Pro-League? The head of Global Sales was brought onboard in October 2017 so had over a year to find companies to come on board with the league. With so many television stations signed up one would have thought that there would have been companies keen on such exposure. Dream 11 was in fact the only new sponsor to come onboard. There was a certain irony in their coming on board in light of India’s withdrawal as Dream11 is an Indian fantasy sports platform that allows users to play fantasy cricket, hockey, football, kabaddi, and basketball!
Clearly the league needed sponsorship. Most importantly of all it needed an airline to come onboard to assist the teams, officials, commentators and FIH staff to travel to the games. It was unlikely that an airline would give free travel but with the spend that the FIH would have in a year, including other tournaments and executive Board meetings the revenue to the airline would be an amount not to be sneezed at. One wonders, and this writer worked in this space for 12 years, why a deal could not be brokered.
The good news was India were back in the Pro League for 2020, when the Covid Pandemic hit. How much their involvement would have helped the bottom line can now only be surmised as we await the 2020 financials and the impact of the global pandemic. .
Clearly reading the accounts India is now more important to hockey than ever before. Whereas at the start of the last century it was important for its playing prowess today it is financially important to the FIH; but so too is Pakistan. It is in the FIH’s and the game’s interests to try and help lift Pakistan hockey, as they did Indian hockey. For fans want to see great rivals go head to head. There is no doubt that Pakistan has the players with the skill, what they lack is the structure and management to be successful. Even if you don’t support Real Madrid or Barcelona you watch el Classico, even if you don’t support Australia or England a cricket fan will tune in to the Ashes. Sport is about rivalry and everyone needs that other team to bring out the best in them.
It will however be a real balancing act trying to tap into the much needed funds that India provides, while also keeping the game alive in other regions of the World. As we have seen the World Cup is going back to India for the third time in 13 years in 2023. While the accounts show that this made sense financially time will tell whether it was the right decision in terms of promoting and growing the game.
There can be no doubt that the month from the 11th of June 2017 when the Pro League teams were announced until the 9th of July 2017 when India pulled out of the competition was a tipping point for the FIH and the game. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but hindsight is only wonderful if you learn from the events of the past and protect yourself from similar events happening again.
While logic says that India is where the money is the sport is a global one. Just as no individual is bigger than the team, no one nation is bigger than the game. India has given the game a rich inheritance, but just how much does the future rely on India, and how precarious does that leave the game as a whole? The balance of power appears to lie with India, but the important factor now is how that power is used, as ultimately it will determine the future of the game as we know it.
It is worth remembering at this time what the great Bengali writer, poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore, who was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature wrote, “A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.”
