Far from the goal

BIZSPORT

It was a long-awaited move that is about to become reality. For years hockey-lovers and the Indian Hockey Federation have been talking about a domestic league to revive interest in the game.

Now the National Hockey League "" midwifed by the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), sports channel ESPN and sports management company Leisure Sports Management (LSM) "" could come into being by September.

In today's world television coverage is like oxygen to a sport. Now, ESPN Star Sports has announced that it will telecast live the league, which will carry good prize money "" around Rs 71 lakh.

While that may not really be a fortune compared to the money in cricket, or even professional golf, it is at least a start. But there are many questions that need to be answered.

For sometime now the IHF had an arrangement with Doordarshan, which paid the hockey federation a tidy sum for every international match and a bit more for 'A' grade domestic tournament finals.

While IHF was making money, hockey didn't really benefit because the telecasts were below par. But then DD cannot be blamed alone for the IHF did nothing to make the events attractive.

Networks like ESPN, Star Sports and even TEN have been wary about signing up with Indian federations, simply because they feel that promises of an organised calendar and good venues, come to naught. To top it all events are often postponed at the eleventh hour and that is something TV channels simply cannot afford.

The IHF, LSM and ESPN-Star Sports have worked out an arrangement which will be for the next 10 years and will start in September.

R C Venkateish, Managing Director, ESPN Software India, has said, "We will now work towards creating an exciting hockey property, using international television production standards." Stirring stuff.

What of the promoters, LSM? Their chairman and managing director, S S Dasgupta, was quoted as saying, "This is a well thought of strategic initiative conceptualised after a lot of research and hard work. LSM is very confident that the proposed tournament will be a grand success. We are committed to offer an international quality experience at all the venues." That's what I would call fantasy.

Hey, even the National Championships are irregular, players are treated like dirt, picked and dropped at will. A channel like ESPN-Star Sports is brave to commit itself to the task.

But if you look deep, they really have nothing to lose and everything to gain. IHF has provide the facilities and LSM has ensured good sponsors and organisation, and that is going to be quite a task. Every sponsor has his own tale of woe to narrate. Some have sworn never to return to hockey.

Briefly, the league will have two tiers having five teams each in the first year and will follow a round-robin format with all teams playing each other twice. The winner will be decided on the basis of total points.

Premier matches are to be played in floodlit stadia and teams can get five foreign players each. This sounds good, but how will the state team finance themselves? That's not specified at all.

Remember even the state cricket teams like Delhi, Mumbai, Tamil Nadu, etc had a tough time getting sponsors for basic travel, kit and equipment?

The winner of the Tier I will take home Rs 30 lakh while the runners up will carry Rs 10 lakh. The winner of Tier II will get Rs 4 lakh while the runner up will receive Rs 2.5 lakh.

Allocation of above prizes between players and the respective associations shall be specified by IHF. There lies the catch. Will the IHF ensure players are taken care of? Remember, the above amounts, when divided among 16 players, coach and manager, become meagre.

In that sense, while a start has been made, I feel hockey is a property worth far more than Rs 71 lakh in prize money. What has not been specified in the arrangements is how much the IHF gets. Surely, it cannot be nothing!

When we talk of every state team having a unique name and identity, it sounds good. But will it work? Is there enough interest in hockey to sustain it, and will it attract spectators and sponsors? The onus will be on ESPN-Star Sports to push the sport.

But they need support from IHF, and all these years the national federation has shown little inclination in that direction. Hopefully, this time it will be different or else this time next year, we will be back to Square One.