Well, it’s New Year and along with New Year comes New Year resolutions. The person might be, rich or poor, old or young; they take some resolutions to improve their life. So, looking at this, how can we keep Indian hockey far behind. Let us look at five New Year resolutions that Hockey India (STILL the governing body of Indian hockey) should take in order to make things ‘better’.
1. Give central contracts to the players
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| Hockey India should allow WSH |
It is high time that Hockey India starts looking after player’s interest instead of their own interests. Right from the day one, Hockey India has only looked after themselves despite of promising the players of central contracts in 2009. Two years have passed but they still have not fulfilled their promise to the players. The players do not get match fees from the federation; they still live on the money provided by the sponsors. The strikes held by the players before the world cup due to non payment of fees and with the cash rewards as high as Rs. 25000, players need and deserve something more so it’s high time Hockey India looks after the interest of the main party of the Indian hockey instead of having petty fights with Indian Hockey Federation and spending the hoards of money on it.
2. Concentrate on women’s hockey
Another resolution and probably the most important one for Indian hockey is to concentrate on the women’s hockey. Indian women hockey, also known as the ‘forgotten hockey’ is in deep mess. In spite of performing decently in various tournaments, women’s hockey was not given the due importance and they always played second fiddle to the men’s team (Gender Bias? I hope not). They are still not paid their match fees, the players had to go themselves to pick the gym equipment for training. They still do not have a foreign coach, which is a must looking at the promise these girls have shown, no rehabilitation for the injured players and many other things. The women players deserve equal status with the men’s team and Hockey India should take this resolution and provide Indian women team with best facilities.
3. Allow World Series Hockey
The most expected tournament for Indian hockey fans (more important than Olympics qualifiers for some of them) and Indian Hockey is World Series hockey, which is facing strong opposition from Hockey India as it is hosted by Indian Hockey Federation. The power hungry officials need to look at the larger picture and allow World Series Hockey for the sake of hockey in India. The tournament has created lot of buzz in the world (hockey world) and everyone is waiting for hockey action. Hockey India should stop being a spoilsport and allow the tournament to go on. This tournament is a big step towards hockey promotion in India and the board should think about promotion of the game and allow the players to participate. Hockey India is not doing anything to promote the game; they should not feel bad if someone else is doing it for them. In the end, hockey will only win.
4. Resolve the problems with Indian Hockey Federation
The fight between Indian Hockey Federation and Hockey India has caused many problems in the year 2011. Be it losing the hosting right of champions Trophy or the players who are stuck between them, this fight has not helped anyone. Most of 2011 was wasted in the fight and court cases which did not leave time for anything else. The boards wasted a lot of money in the court battles which left very less amount of money for the players (remember Rs. 25000 award money for the players). If the problems between IHF and HI are solved, Indian hockey can think about moving ahead towards a positive scenario. This fight needs to end or else Indian hockey will become stagnant with FIH calling all the shots.
5. Cleanup
The final resolution that Hockey India needs to take is to clean the federation. There are many un-deserving un-interested people occupying important places in Hockey India (read: Narinder Batra- treasurer of Delhi Cricket Association) who are not helping Indian hockey. Sports Ministry and Sports Authority of India have to take a strict and right step in improving the working of Indian hockey. With IHF-HI fight continuing; the day will not be far when players start receiving Rs. 2500 as prize money for winning tournaments.
Oh!! AND STOP PAYING STUPID SUM AS PRIZE MONEY e.g. Rs. 25000
What are the other resolutions Hockey India should take? Please write in the comment box and let us know
I think almost all of the schools,if not every,specially primary schools should provide hockey for the students so that way new talents are born. Sponsor schools, colleges for sporting facilities. LOOK out for young talents in hockey whether if it's buried in poor areas or rich areas. Oh….. please, stop corruption and specially when it comes to selecting players for the Indian team because there are so many better player out there, who can prove that india is still no.1 in hockey, they probably just don't have the right opportunities or MONEY to pay off the selectors. the government of India should include Hockey more by either sponsoring the team or individual players or opening new clubs in every possible states of India. India can be the again the best nation for HOCKEY only if the team has a proper coach preferably an out side coach since India does not have very good coaches. If we look at cricket, they have an out side coach and they won the last world cup because of their coach. again, india has a lot of talented hockey players but we need to look at young talents.