It’s been 14 years since KPS Gill became the president of the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), and in all this time, the struggling sport has only gone further down. Gill and his associates blame the increasing popularity of cricket as one of the reasons to justify the decline of Indian hockey. But top BCCI officials said the national sport can regain its lost base with only a bit of reorganisation and an aggressive marketing strategy.And, they said they were talking from experience. IS Bindra, former BCCI president and now a principle advisor to the International Cricket Council, and board joint secretary MP Pandove recalled how they raised Rs 4.5 lakh in 1975 by organising a charity hockey match to help Patiala’s District Olympic Association (DOA) with funds.Bindra was then a deputy commissioner and ex-officio chief of the DOA. He, Pandove and some other officials decided to organise a Punjab versus Rest of India match at the Yadvindra Sports Stadium in Patiala that included an Olympian from Pakistan as the star attraction.“The match generated a lot of spectators and sponsors. Almost all the Indian stars were playing — including the likes of Balbir Singh Sr. In those days, a five-day cricket Test would have generated around four lakhs, and we made more money than that from a game of hockey,” Pandove told The Indian Express. “It was enough for the district association to manage their sport for the next 10 years.” He said that the hockey association needs to urgently learn how to market the game better. “We have stars in hockey, and it’s just a matter of strengthening your organisation from within. If anybody feels that hockey cannot find a market in the wake of the recent failure to qualify for the Olympics, then one could argue that even the BCCI should have found it difficult to market cricket after the 2007 World Cup. “Hockey will become a good investment only when the team starts performing, but the officials should understand how to promote the sport. We waited for two series after the 2007 World Cup, and the moment we had some victories, we started marketing the game again,” he said.“But the main thing is how well you have done your homework and how well your internal units are co-ordinated,” Pandove added.Poor marketing strategies and simplistic planning have been blamed for the Premier Hockey League (PHL) — the IHF’s desperate bid to sell the game in a sophisticated avatar — not doing well despite a plethora of international stars.Meanwhile, the BCCI has ruled out giving any financial assistance to the IHF. It says it will only extend assistance to other “deserving” sportsmen to help them prepare for the Beijing Olympics.
