It was supposed to be a plan that would change Indian hockey forever. But the international federation (FIH) did not realise that some things never change in the India Hockey Federation (IHF), which has been headed by KPS Gill for the last 15 years.

It’s quite evident now that the project Promoting Indian Hockey, which was started two years ago, has gone nowhere.

Why? All that the IHF bosses have done about the project is hold one meeting in the last two years, and that too on January 30 , 2008.

Karnataka Hockey Association secretary, Kannan Krishnamoorthy, who was a part of the Task Force committee, says, “Things were supposed to be happening for two years but the IHF woke up only on January 30, 2008 to conduct the first meeting regarding the project. And even then, only the departments were allotted to the members.”

The members are still waiting for a second meeting even though the FIH’s March 2008 deadline is just around the corner.

The guidelines

In his report, Bob Davidzon, who was appointed as head of the project and had toured the country at that time, had pointed out certain areas of concern. Some of his guidelines were:

• Finance: Attracting sponsors and gaining their confidence to raise money

• Synthetic pitches: With the total number of astro turfs amounting not more than 30 in the country, the need to increase their number and maintain them

• Marketing: As of now the IHF is run by the two bigwigs KPS Gill and K Jothikumaran, but the FIH wanted a lot of specific committees

... contd.