World body gives fresh deadline to hold elections even as caretaker Hockey India officials love to drag their feet

By Soumitra Bose and Prateek Srivastava

The international hockey federation is seemingly going the cricket way, purely due to commercial reasons. India could soon become hockey's hotspot because the moolah is here.

With two industry giants, Hero Honda and the Steel Authority of India, supporting the 2010 World Cup, currently under way at Delhi's National Stadium, the signs are encouraging, but only just.

The FIH says the World Cup in Delhi has been a commercial success. Apart from the main sponsors, there have been numerous smaller companies associating with the world championship being held in India for the second time after more than two decades.

FIH marketing manager Steve Morris revealed that India has been the top revenue contributor, mainly from television. Top hockey nations like Germany, Australia and Pakistan fared very poorly in this aspect.

Morris said: "India's contribution in revenue is more than 50 per cent. The Netherlands were second. Malaysia, Argentina and USA also contribute."

"In countries like Pakistan, Spain, China, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, South Africa, Singapore and Middle East, it is difficult to sell hockey on television," the FIH official said.

If money is available, what will surely make India a more attractive market is the passion of the people who have been turning up in numbers to watch World Cup games. TRP ratings of the India versus Pakistan match on Day 1 of the World Cup equalled TV ratings of an India-Sri Lanka ODI last year.

FIH director general Christophe Troendle said the world body is aiming to treble its revenue in 2010-2016 and India is the main market. The FIH is already planning a world club championship and India could become the first venue. Insiders say FIH already has an Indian sponsor lined up.

But the question doing the rounds is can hockey match cricket in terms of administration, communication and popularity. If the current World Cup is any yardstick, the answer is "No." This World Cup has been in the news for all the wrong reasons and the FIH agrees. It is no point blaming an over-obsessed police force.

First of all, Hockey India is an ad-hoc body. It is run by people who are not democratically chosen by the affiliated units. By modest estimates, Hockey India has twice failed to hold elections in spite of FIH deadlines.

Critics say it is a delaying tactic by the current officials to remain in power as long as they can. The FIH, on its part, has been rather soft on HI, a body controlled by Indian Olympic Association president Suresh Kalmadi.

Interestingly, a fresh deadline - May 21 - for elections have been set. FIH President Leandro Negre said it was important that all groups in Indian hockey looked ahead. "The deadline is May 31. After that we will suspend Indian hockey as a member of the FIH," Negre has said.

Assuming that FIH means what it says, Indian hockey can only stand to gain. It is foolish to compare hockey and cricket. To even match 50 per cent of the glamour and glitz of cricket will be a dream come true. Hockey needs to produce its Indian heroes and throw up officials who can think out of the box, honest and with a vision.

There is criticism that the Indian media is too obsessed with cricket. Why should it not be? The BCCI knows how to market the game. Despite internecine struggles in it, the game has prospered by the day unlike the local hockey authorities, who could not pay overdue payments to their players on the threshold of a World Cup.

A lot has to be learnt from cricket, to be sure. FIH communication manager Arjen Meijer was quick to admit that certain things were out of place during the event. And that included the basic requirement of a proper media box and a clean washroom.

"We agree that we could not provide certain things. The Indian Olympic Association and we are to be blamed for all the inconveniences," Meijer said. "But at the same time you must also understand that in an event of such magnitude, a few lapses like those can occur," he added. The lapses were not few, at all.

No body knows when India will organise their next big event, but one can only hope that it will be much better managed than this World Cup. Commercial success is not everything.