OPINION: Indian Hockey League income should not become the only target of players

After a long time, there is good news in the field of hockey.  Sometime back, the Indian team has shown a hope in the championship trophy in Australia and this could have an impact on hockey in whole of the world besides India and Pakistan.  The biggest bidding on two Indian players of hockey for India League shows that those who are linking their financial interest with the hockey, they too have high expectations from the Indian players.  Even otherwise, the Hockey India League in itself is a big and good news.  The main problem in the Indian hockey is that there is not too much earning in this profession which has resulted in not making available the good infrastructure for practice at the lower level.  This is the reason that hockey players have not been financially sound as at present for playing hockey, a very nominal amount is given and the only income the daily allowance they are paid.  In both these conditions, the new generation has not been attracted towards hockey game as compared to cricket or any other game.

Through this league, it looks to be important for the organisers and the players.  The second important thing is that the Indian hockey players would be in a position to play with the world class players and also against them and this would help them to improve their game in a better way. In addition to the world players, the nine best players of Pakistan would also play in this league.  In this news, a new ray of hope is seen.   For long time, the India and Pakistan had been authoritative in world hockey and when this authority was broken; both the teams had come on the ground.  It is hoped that Hockey India League would provide both the teams a way to show their worth.  Out of the five teams for league, one is from UP and the other from Ranchi, which the cricket has ignored but hockey has adopted.

It is true that this hockey league is different from IPL Cricket but it cannot be denied that somewhere the motivation of professional success of IPL is playing its role.  It is but natural to have comparison with the IPL.  No doubt, professional success is one important thing but in the past four year’s history, there had been number of controversies also. Number of controversies, right from financial scams to politics is attached to it. Hockey League should start right now safety measures as there had been politics in the name of Hockey in the past.  The problem of IPL is that when the India cricket team was showing the bad presentation in the test matches against the England, then most of the experts and old players were blaming the IPL.  Though there is no such problem with the hockey like that of Cricket but it has to be kept in view that the money being received from Indian Hockey League should not become the only target of the players.

(Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author in this article are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of City Air News.)