After eighty-three years, Odias want to tell rest of the world that there is a State in India called Odisha, through hockey! Nothing could be as unfortunate as this Hockey World Cup sponsorship at the cost of public money. Odisha will be spending crores of rupees on sponsoring Indian hockey team for next four years. Usually, sponsorship is done to promote certain firm or its product. Earlier, Sahara, MRF, Pepsi, Joi, Samsung and Kingfisher used to be sponsor for different games and sportspersons but never by a State.
The extravaganza during the world cup inauguration ceremony could easily be arranged through professionals if someone has the money power. There are hardly any playgrounds in our schools and colleges for the students. If at all there are grounds, it’s being used as grazing ground for cattle or used as Yatra or Mela during winter months. The youth mass of Odisha mostly plays cricket or football or volleyball but very few hockey due to no availability of even fields. Except for Sundargah district where a few Astor turf grounds are available for practice and matches where a few tribal players play. I am yet to see people playing hockey in village grounds. Everywhere cricket, tennis ball cricket, night cricket but no hockey matches. There is cricket fever everywhere, no hockey even though it’s our national sport. Once the game became 90 minutes’ affairs, our players lost steam and could hardly qualify for important tournaments. India is participating because of home advantage. The Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has a sports hostel with free lodging and boarding facilities for tribal boys and girls for more than two decades which many of you might not be aware about. They are being coached by international players like Micheal Kindo and Dilip Tirkey.
If the Odisha Government thinks that hosting a world cup would improve the standard of Odisha hockey then we want to differ. Yes, if the party politics creep into games and sports then there will be premature death of that game. Unfortunately, there are no players from Odisha in the world cup eleven at the moment. The extravaganza looked more like a Hindi film festival than a world cup sports event.
It’s a pity that Odisha does not have any international personality to give away the prizes to the international players. It’s quite annoying to watch politicians distributing prizes. Bhubaneswar and Cuttack people are crazy about film stars; hence, the packed stadium. Even hundreds watch bullfights in our city roads, but those who go inside the stadium are for eating and showing off their status; they hardly understand anything about the game played. A few go to watch cheer girls. Spectators from different places of Odisha have come due to curiosity to see an international match, fireworks and the white skinned cheer girls.
Summarising my article on this world cup hockey, we feel happy and proud that such an event could take place in Odisha, but the question remains “Could a poor State like Odisha afford to spend so much for personal glorification and political gain?” Time would say how this hockey bonanza helped Hockey in Odisha!
(The writer is a former East Zone and Ranji Trophy cricket player)