Opinion To shoot with honour

The Indian hockey team’s strike,less than six weeks before the World Cup in Delhi,has degenerated into a bit of a circus over the last couple of days. There were allegations and counter-allegations of greed and incompetence after yet another unproductive meeting on Tuesday,and loads of reactions from all over the country (none more dramatic than former players offering to return their Olympic medals).

The players felt insulted by the Rs 25,000 incentive they were offered,and said the officials refuse to understand the issue at hand. The officials say they don’t have any more money,and that the players are being unreasonable. (A television channel has completely missed the point and started a pool to save Indian hockey,where viewers can send in money for the team. They are not asking for charity,they’re asking for a salary and some respect.)

That the strike has brought the issue into focus is great,but there’s a danger here that it’ll get lost under this mountain of emotions.

Firstly,playing hockey for India,or any sport other than cricket for that matter,doesn’t equate to a steady income. Players get jobs on the sports quota that pay them a salary,but concepts such as match fees or retainers are non-existent. Briefly,in 2003-04,K.P.S. Gill’s Indian Hockey Federation had started paying a core group of players a monthly stipend of Rs 25,000 but that lasted only a year. Otherwise,what they get for playing for India is a per diem when on tour. That can’t be fair.

Secondly,Hockey India’s defence is that they can’t do any more as they’re an ad-hoc body,that they can’t make promises that the next elected body is expected to keep. But then why haven’t the elections been held yet? There was a November deadline,which came and went. They then set January 29 as the date before postponing that to February 7. The process of handing out of fresh affiliations has taken so long that it’s hard not to ask: Will they go to the polls only when they’re sure they’ll win?

The team’s official sponsors stepped in on Wednesday and put up an extra crore to end the current impasse,and generous as that is,it doesn’t change anything for the long term.

In April 2008,the hockey fraternity in India was rejoicing the fact that K.P.S. Gill’s and K. Jothikumaran’s IHF had been overthrown by Suresh Kalmadi and the Indian Olympic Association. Twenty one months later,it’s depressingly clear that not much has changed. Yes,the ad-hoc committee has organised more international tours,and traveling teams are staying in better hotels than they used to. Little else is different.

K.P.S. Gill said on Tuesday that this kind of strike would never have happened had he been in charge. That’s probably true because the team would’ve been sacked at the first signs of dissent. He ran the game through fear and apathy. HI’s version is negligence and apathy.

It takes all kinds to make the world,but you’d be hard-pressed to find an Indian hockey player,current or former,who thinks the administrators have done well,and that should say something about how the game’s run in the country.

On Tuesday afternoon,two of the three players involved in that dream goal in August 2003,Prabhjot and Deepak,were sitting alongside their team mates facing television cameras in Pune and explaining to anyone who’d hear that they were asking only for what they deserved. Dhanraj,the original rebel,was at the Bombay Hockey Association,reiterating that this was the only way players could make their point.

The least you can do is hear them out without insulting them.

deepak.narayanan@expressindia.com