The Hindu Business Line : Is anyone hurt for Indian hockey as Dhanraj?

With the Manmohan Singh Government still not taking any action to cull K.P.S. Gill as chief of the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), Indian hockey can rest in peace at the bottom of the international hockey table.

Mani Shankar Aiyar says IHF is an autonomous body and government cannot do anything. “Just as we don’t appoint a federation president, we cannot remove him either. We just watch and suffer,” remarks Aiyar.

Well, for the last five years the Manmohan Singh Government has only “watched and suffered”. Now, there is a belief, Rahul Gandhi alone can knock down Gill. There was some chatter in the newspapers and TV channels when India failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics for the first time, but cricket has taken over and hockey has become a “chalta hai”.

Sadly, there are only a few hockey correspondents around to start a campaign and they will be denied space by sports editors keen on the “great cattle fair” in cricket with Adam Gilchrist admitting to feeling like a cow being sold at the highest price. Gill may not know hockey, but he knows the attention span of the public which does not extend beyond the swirl and sound of a TV shot.

The honourable sardar of IHF, who has been the chief for 14 years, has refused to go; maybe, he is quite proud of his managerial performance and has the recipe to do better. In 1994, Gill became the President of IHF ousting Gufran-e-Azam in Bhopal. “It was the year which saw Gufran-e-Azam dump coach Balkishen Singh after the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and also destroy the career of probably one of the best coaches ever to have coached India, P.A. Raphael,” writes Sundeep Misra in his book — Forgive me Amma –The Life and Times of Dhanraj Pillay.

Cricket brings the money being “hugely” popular with Indian teams winning matches, in and out of the country. Kapil Dev won us the World Cup in 1983, and after that the Indian cricket team has done nothing much despite Sachin Tendulkar; we won the 20x20 World Cup without Sachin Tendulkar.

Rahul Gandhi recently observed there was no democracy within the Congress party. He could have added there was no such thing in any sports body including the private body “controlling cricket” – BCCI. The last time one met good friend Govy, a hockey enthusiast apart from playing the game with Indian international Thirumal, he said he had stopped following hockey; now, he follows silly, English football on TV with players, when challenged, passing the ball to their goalkeepers. That’s when Govy has time from filing one liner news shots at his newswire office.

Hockey is unable to make a strong case as the retired players are not holding together to force a change. None has seriously taken the charge of coach Joaquim Carvalho that umpires were biased in the knock-out game between India and Britain. Followers of the game have heard this excuse many times in the past.

India has a hockey record far better than cricket or for that matter any other sport. At least we were World Champions and won a hat-trick of gold medals in the Olympics between 1928 and 1936. If the Moscow Olympics is kept aside following a US boycott, India took the gold medal for the last time in Tokyo. Mostly there was no opposition in his times and Dhyan Chand could make it to the top. India lost out with the introduction of the astro turf, fitter body play of the European teams and technology. India has a couple of astro turf pitches, the players are physically and mentally weak and there is no technology. It is Ram bharose (Leave it to Ram) all the way.

Brazil has been able to keep intact its football magic while international hockey has little of it with India having nothing of it. In Beijing 2008, we will not have to take the trouble to play hockey. If our women qualify, we will see some hockey. A Dhoni from India Interior wallows in crores while a Dilip Tirkey, manning the team from the back line and from the same India Interior, can probably count a few thousands.

Dhoni is in every ad, Tirkey has no ad. Like the 9 per cent Chidambaram economic growth, Indian cricket, has split Indian society in two — some in, most out. Cricket is in, hockey is out and the case for inclusive growth in sports becomes louder. Come to think of it, India is doing well in sports which eat up wads of notes – rupees and dollars. Billiards, snooker, shooting, cricket and tennis are for the rich. Money is flowing into these disciplines with most of it coming from the players born in affluent families.

Athletics, hockey, football, swimming and many other sports are for the poor. In Mumbai, one can find kids playing these sports on uneven, dusty municipal grounds which double as drug dens. For this writer, Dhanraj will always be a notch ahead of Dhyan Chand for the simple reason that Dhanraj played against quality opposition on astro and dribbled past them at speeds hard to see on a hockey ground. He made it to four Olympics but never won an Olympic medal. But for this writer, he will always be super with the opposition sweating to hold Pillay on his hockey runs and gambols through the centre of the field with the ball rarely parting from the hockey stick.

Born on the night of July 15, 1968, in Khadki near Pune, Joaquim Carvalho offered the break by asking him to join Mahindra & Mahindra. It was after the defeat at the Sydney Olympic Games 2000, that Sundeep Misra heard Pillay cracking up on the mobile talking to his mother, “Amma, I have failed you, Amma. Three Olympics I have played and I couldn’t get a medal back… Amma I could not do it for the country. Amma, forgive me, I have failed.” Today, is anyone hurt for Indian hockey as Dhanraj?

P. Devarajan