Sunday 22nd January 2023 may well go down in hockey as Black Sunday.
For it was on this day that New Zealand’s Black Sticks who finished third in their World Cup pool with only one victory, came from behind against the hosts India to take the game to a shoot-out and knocked out the hosts. India had come second in their pool on goal difference, having not lost a game. They were expected to make the quarter finals and loyal Indian fans dreamed of at least a semi-final berth, but it was not to be.
Not surprisingly there were many in India who were devastated and took to social media to vent their frustration and disappointment.
Former Indian international Rupinder Pal Singh responded and summed the situation up perfectly when he wrote, “We win as a team, and we lose as a team. No one person deserves the praise or the blame, ever. Get that absolutely straight in your mind. The ones who are hurt the most at this point are the players who gave it all in the field. No player ever wants to lose, it’s a sport, and results don’t always go in our favour. It’s easy to sit back at the comfort of your homes and hurl abuses at those who not too long ago stood on the podium at the biggest stage of them all, Olympics.”
Following India’s loss it has been very sad to hear how many hockey fans are pleased that the host nation has been knocked out. This clearly is a result of the underlying feeling that India has been given preferential treatment by the game’s governing body. Certainly, hosting three of the last four men’s World Cup competitions is never going to go down well, no matter how you wrap up the decision.
However, even in India there are those who feel this is a good thing, as those from regions outside the state of Odisha feel that they have been neglected and so too many of their talented players.
In years gone by, probably before and for a number of years after artificial turf was introduced these sentiments would never have been aired, for India and Pakistan were hockey. Their skill was mesmerizing, they were for so many years the benchmark to which the rest of the world aspired.
The irony of India’s early exit is they have fallen prey to a format that was, so we were told, devised to give the lesser teams, those outside the top five or six, the opportunity to progress in the tournament and cause an upset.
When the shift in format was proposed cynics within the game saw it as being introduced to actually try and assist India of all nations to progress further in the tournament. Only those who were privy to the process will know the real reasons for the change, and no doubt much of the discussion will not be in the minutes.
Whatever the reasons there can be no doubt that this was a very sad day for Indian hockey.
It could also be a watershed moment for the game in that country and worldwide.
The Odisha Government has ploughed millions into the sport. They built a purpose built 20,000 capacity stadium for this world cup in Rourkela at a reported cost of USD31.9Million.
Despite the World Cup Final always being scheduled to be played at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar India’s elimination will be a body blow to the State Government which is a major sponsor of the FIH.
It could have a far-reaching effect on hockey and further Government investment in Odisha. As when all is said and done the electorate speaks and they would have expected India to have been participating in the final stages. If that were the case the investment looks to have been wise. Now, as is always the case in such circumstances, there will be some who will be asking whether such investment was money well-spent.
Some in India fear that the investment in the game may also suffer in other states within the country.
At a time of unrest within the administration of the game in India and a push by some member states to have the Indian Hockey Federation recognized again as being the Governing body of the sport in place of Hockey India, those backing such a move may find their position suddenly all the stronger.
One feels that sadly there is going to be more than a little soul-searching within Indian Hockey. This defeat may well be a catalyst for change. Some will undoubtedly be good but unfortunately some may also be bad for the game.
When India failed to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, alarm bells rang in Switzerland at the International Hockey Federation headquarters, as with no country willing to take up the television rights for the sport Hockey faced being possibly dropped from the Olympic Games.
In 2010 India hosted the Hockey World Cup.
At that time the Indian Hockey Federation which ran the game in India was accused of corruption. In April 2008 the Indian Olympic Association suspended the body. Hockey India was then formed in 2009; the body that now runs Hockey in India. Hockey India was created by the Indian Olympic Association. So effectively there were two bodies claiming to run the sport. It was in turmoil. Despite this the FIH opted to still hold the 2010 World Cup in Delhi!
The event went off without any hitches thanks to the help of the Indian Olympic Association. To run the tournament the FIH reportedly formed a body called FIH Hero Honda Society.
On August 6, 2010 the Indian Government, through the Ministry of Sports were reported to have written to the then FIH president Leandro Negre requesting that the FIH not assign international events or have commercial dealings with Hockey India. This was because the Indian Hockey Federation had been re-instated as the National body after an Indian Court ruling.
The FIH however still threw its weight behind Hockey India, and set about organising the 2011 Champions Trophy in Delhi. This was announced in February 2011, but in September of the same year the tournament was moved to Auckland after “a Government issue” meant it could not proceed in India. This coming despite the Indian Hockey Federation and Hockey India signing an agreement in July.
This agreement was intended to see a joint executive board created which would perform the function of the National Sports Federation for field hockey.
In 2011 the FIH, realized that its future existence was reliant on India once again being strong. They chose to no longer recognize the Indian Hockey Federation, which had been one of the FIH’s first non-European members back in 1928, but to acknowledge Hockey India as the game’s legitimate governing body.
Now they may be forced to choose again if the weight of numbers in Indian Hockey support the return of the Federation as the Governing body of the sport.
The FIH invested greatly in Indian hockey at this time with the aim of assisting the once great nation in their resurgence on the World stage. It is hard to know an exact amount as former staff have said that they were never made aware of the true figure. Some believed it to be in the region of $2million, but this is mere speculation.
With people clamouring now for the FIH to support another great hockey nation that has fallen from the top of the heap to not even qualifying for the past two world Cups, Pakistan, some are understandably asking whether they will receive the same support. The truth is this is going to be unlikely as the FIH simply does not have the money it had a decade ago to lend such support.
In India Star Sports came onboard in 2014 as the FIH’s global production, host broadcast and distribution partner and boasted that they were going to take the game to new heights in terms of coverage of the Hockey India League and international tournaments. Yet when viewing figures did not match what had been predicted costs were not surprisingly cut, and then three years into an eight year deal the agreement was terminated.
It is alleged that no attempt was made to recoup the substantial bonuses paid to FIH staff who brokered the original deal.
A new deal was brokered, and as part of that new deal India continued to host a major International Tournament every year. Surprisingly, few spoke up even when they missed out on participating and world ranking points. (The Sore Points of Hosting). India benefitted and continued to climb the rankings, and also benefitted from being exposed to high level competition.
The FIH’s focus has been very India-centric. For a number of years it has appeared that there are no other major companies outside of India that can be convinced to come on board and sponsor the sport.
Hero Motorcorp a company only operating in India is the FIH’s Global Leadership Partner. One of two Global Partners is the State of Odisha. One of its four Global suppliers is an online gaming platform again based in India, Dream 11, who interestingly on their own website only promote that they are the Official partner of Indian Cricket, and mention only that sport and football on their website.
Regrettably for the sport many of the global companies listed as suppliers or partners inject in world sports terms relatively small sums of money into the sport. Theirs is a ‘value in kind’ agreement in which they supply services or equipment in return for promotion.
So when it comes to the cold hard cash India is the well to which the FIH goes.
As many people will be aware if you keep going back to the same well, eventually that well will run dry. When it does, as Benjamin Franklin famously said, you ‘know the worth of water.’
At the Women’s World Cup in London in 2018 the FIH CEO Thierry Weil stated that he wanted the World cup to be the biggest event in Hockey. He wanted the FIH to own it, and therefore have no naming rights sponsors. He wanted it to be the equivalent of the FIFA World Cup. These were admirable goals.
India was chosen to host the world cup again in 2023 because of the guaranteed financial return for the governing body. This no doubt enabled them to not have a naming rights partner. The host team bowing out is always going to hurt a tournament, but hopefully those financial returns are set in stone or there could be an immediate impact.
Can the sport afford to not have a naming rights sponsor for the World Cup at this time? Surely at this point in time to lock one in for a set number of tournaments would help the sport to build to a time when it can be more like FIFA’s event?
Worryingly if the support for the India national team suffers in India based on the team’s performance at the world cup, is it fair to assume that the knock-on effect could impact the funding of the FIH and the sport as a whole?
New Zealand may have made a big splash similar to dropping a pebble in a pond in India, but the effect of the ripples created are likely to be felt across the globe.
