Let us not bother about how much the players should be paid or who should coach the indian senior teams in both the men's and women's sections. Instead let us all do something at the grass root level. let all the retired hockey players who have played at various levels go to schools and start training the boys and girls who are below 7 years of age at every nook and corner of India and you will see lots and lots of children taking up hockey instead of cricket. ultimately cricket will have a natural death. If this is done, you will have cream for the future and indian hockey will survive.

Most of the state associations today are surviving only because of sports hostels run by the various state governments like tamil nadu,karnataka,orissa,punjab,bihar,kerala.

Club hockey is almost dead because of fund constraints and due to lack of infrastructure. Most of the schools in India do not have hockey trainers/coaches and naturally they do not encourage hockey due to the fact that the current and retired hockey players have not offered their services to the schools. They can either work with the children as part time or full time hockey coaches.

As a matter of fact, I quit my bank job when i had 9 years of service and have worked with school children for the last 9 years.

I therefore, make a sincere appeal to all hockey lovers and current and retired players to take up one or two schools in their respective towns/villages/cities in real earnest to work for hockey revival and also see our country regaining the lost glory.

JAIHIND

RAJU VENKAT
919845311955
rajurajikargil@gmail.com

I completely agree with the author. Babugiri is not only here but every facet of life. Till we get rid of these babus, we can get nowhere. Besides hockey is a national game. If someone would have insulted the national flag , there would have been hundreds of remarks by politicians, but see now if any one of these 534 plus parlamentarians/ministers have made a single comment. This is a sad state of affairs. Even people like Matoo (i dont know who this idiot is and what he understands of hockey) are threatening the players who toils the fiedls with their hard work and sweat to make our nation proud. They shgould be put behind bars. If they cant resolve problems, they should be holding any office. My sincere regards to all those hockey players. No bread No play. Support our hockey, it the national game. Jai hind.

FIH after long years decided to come to India, not to revive the game, but, to ensure that their event has Indian participation. Without the host city quota, they feared India would miss their spot in the World Cup fixture and have the same fate as in Beijing Olympics. And this would have adverse effects on their television revenue. And like many other sports federation eyeing India, wanted their fair share of the pie from this emerging economy.

I completely agree with the author that babus had been clinging to sports administration for power and money. So what if they are not taking the bucks back home, all expense paid trip around the world for sports events with no knowledge whatsoever about hockey and having countless number of your friends and relatives being associated with sports counts as deceit.

If there is anyone in that room that is still associated with hockey for the passion of the sport; it’s the player. Addressing them as greedy was hideous and calls for an apology from both National & IF officials.

Let us not forget the point – by asking for grading system and salary, the players were not asking for money but to be treated fairly. Name calling in the process or pouring money is not the solution. I completely agree with the author on this one - its about their dignity!

Dear Sports wellwisher,
Do you think that sponsors come out of the way to promote sports or do justice to players or do it for National pride, No they are at the mercy of top Management who do favours to political leaders who hold the posts when they exchange favours, Ambani spends huge amount on IPL cricket for enjoyment of his wife and well wishsers at shareholders cost, Mallaya sells liquor thru sports, Naional pride comes when you do for the development of sports for the large poor sportsmen in our country in villages and cities do we treat our sports coaches as gurus they are starved labourers what quality of sportsmen can they produce until and unless they are paid well to teach proper sports, when top class sportsmen who have won laurels are treted as thirdclass citizen and filmstars promote sports it is a pity to our parlimentty system who sit together to make their own pay package, cricket day in and day out is fooling the system and sports just forget sports as no youngster will mentally think of the greatness of National pride and National spirit
Let god save other sports because it is beyond the media or unpaid officials who work honorary and only the politians are paid.
Balakrishnan Iyer Sportsman

I totally agree with you Rajesh. These Babus and the so called (mal)administrators of the game are there neither because of their administrative capabilities nor for their sporting credentials. They are simply there because of their political connections. What would they therefore know of the kind of commitment and sacrifice it takes to reach and succeed at the top levels of any sport, leave alone a sport like Hockey where the abysmal remuneration to the players means that these players are simply playing for the love of the sport, love of the nation and for national pride. For the incompetent and incapable babus to pontificate to such people is nothing short of utter disgrace. I am so glad that the players are finally getting their dues. Hats off to them for standing up for their rights and not yielding to threats. Shame on the babus.

I agree with the author .Having played hockey in school and discontinuing it to pursue studies i can understand the pain of our players who are real heros.I was witness to the moment of national shame when our legend Sir Dhanraj Pillay was given a "HERO CYCLE" as the trophy for man of the series .What a shame...with every match India plays i cheer my team with a hope that God give them strength to deal with opposition team as well as our very own IHF .

Shame on entire Indian system. never read anything good happening there.

The author has done a yeoman service ,uncovering & unfolding the hidden /unknown matter to the common man . It was indeed a sad day to read in the newspapers about the decision of the HI players to opt for a strike : not at the goal but seek justice ! The onus of all this malady lay squarely on its management holding highly paid post,holding undeservingly .Most of the comments & the replies thereupon have been in agreement by commenting upon them adversly on these high-ups . A big shake up is the need of the day . We are supposed to be world-beaters & not beaten!The earlier Top brass having hold on this premier Hockey Fedration is equally responsible for all this uncalled for avoidable situation .

Very nice and sensible article. Wish concerned persons/OFFICIALS read this--It is a shame that the situation has reached this stage. There is nothing left so say "NATIONHOOD" OR "PATRIOTISM" IS THE THING OF THE PAST--ONLY GREED IS LEFT--BEST--ASHWANI

I am very sure none of the babus would have foregone any of their perks during this same period. It is the players who make the game evrything else is secondary.

WAYS OUT TO IMPROVE SPORTS?
1. DUTY OF THE DISTRICT AND STATE TO PREPARE INFRASTRUCTURE FOR DIFFERENT SPORTS.
2 DUTY OF THE UNIVERSITY AND SCHOOL SPORTS BOARD TO MAINTAIN THEM AND UTILISE THEM FOR SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES OF THE DISTRICT AND STATE.
3. NATIONAL GAMES MUST BE CONDUCTED AND PASSED ON FROM STATE TO STATE AND AWARDS TO GIVEN FOR THE BEST STATE EVERY YEAR.
4. CRICKET IN NOT THE ONLY SPORTS IN THIS COUNTRY,STOP MAKING MONEY IN THE NAME OF PROMOTING CRICKET ALL SPORTS SCHOULD GET EQUAL RESPECT FOR BY PRESS, PRINT AND MEDIA AND SPORTS CHANNEL.
5. DUTY OF THE MUNICIPALITY TO PAY AND ADOPT DISTRICT PLAYES THE STATE FOR NATIONAL PLAYERS AND THE CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL PLAYERS.
6. EMPLOY QUALIFIED COACHES FOR DEVELOPMENT AND BE PAYED WELL FOR THEIR WORK AND AWARD FOR THEIR ACHIEVEMENT.
7, USE THE SPORTSMEN OF THE STATE TO VOLUNTEER FOR SOCIAL CAUSE DISASTER MANAGEMENT, AS HOME GUARDS AND FOR ALL GOOD CAUSES.
8. ASSOCIATION OF ANY SPORTS IS PART OF THAT DISTRIT OR STATE HIS OFFICIALS HAVE TO BE PAID AND MADE ACCOUNTABLE.
9.PROMOTE SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY SPORTS AND NOT TAMASHA SPORTS CONCENTRATE ON OLYMPICS WORLD SPORTS, SEND TEAMS TO REACH OUT AND INTERACT WITH OTHER COUNTRIES FOR GOODWILL AND LEARNING,
18. REMEMBER SPORTS IS A WAY OF LIFE AND NOT DO IT FOR OVERALL DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL AND MAKE A GOOD HUMAN BEING BEYOND CASTECREED RELIGION OR STATE.

what a shame! a country that treats its national players like beggars is preparing to hold commonwealth games. india does not know how to respect professionals. but what else can you expect in a country where highly qualified scientists have to take orders from semiliterate babus and illiterate netas?

It is shameful for sports in any country to let any situation go out of control to the extent that the players volunteer to pitch in! It makes no sensible argument to point at non achieving sports, without providing the right kind of incentive. It is high time people woke up and recognized that Hockey should be nurtured at every leve - the players, infrastructure and support, and not just heralded in school books as the National Sport.

India's problem is that lazy, inefficient and corrupt sarkaari babus and officers have hijacked India. They do too little and get paid handsome salaries , pension and rishwat. Most of them earn 5% in salary and 95% in rishwat. Talks of crorepati babus and peons is doing rounds.
A farmer, factory worker, contractor, suppliers, small scale industry walah, professionals pay thru their nose and work too hard to make both ends meet. Sportsmen are no different. It is high time performers in private sectors who succeed should hit back strongly the false egos of this sarkaari parasite class. First step is to compel the politicians to privatize PSU's and to demand resignation on failures by Govt functionaries. Second is to stop accommodating retired sarkaari individuals in private service and third is to hit hard if they want rishwat. Get them caught by CBI and demand heavy damages from these guys.

I think there's no game that doesn't suffer from the red tapism, administrarive apathy, indifferent atitude, thanks due to the unprofessional leadership from top to bottom... so it doesn't come as a surprise when one controversy after another crops up...! The latest among them is the olympic gold medal winner Abhinave Binndra and look at the way, the NRAI & Sports ministry has made a mockery of the issue by blatantly denyng him the right of talented shooter to win medal for India just because he had exposed the self serving officals' inefficiency... and how they are damaging the potential winners! Rather than salvaging their none so good image, they are making utter fools of themselves...!! And are they cocerned with the game in any way...! The answer is "ABSOLUTE NO". They have no sensivity or the understanding, of what it atkes to reacch where the athlete has reached INSPITE OF THE SYSTEM...
Thanks to these power-mongers, India managed to lose several potential winners, who invariably fall victims to the ill-conceived notions of running the game at every stage in almost every game in our country.....
That the national team of the national game has to suffer this speaks volume about the sad state of affairs of organisational ills ailing the nation and forget about the others....

Money will attract talent... and there will be performance to be at the top. This is true in cricket, other sports and also in the corporate world. You dont have CEO and CFO with Rs 25000 p.m. salary. These people too make the country proud. Rightly said -- Why should only the players think of the nation when the babus are making money --. Now no team sports in India is capable to get medal in olympics you see the trend only individuals with their own funds are coming to the top. Where in hell is the tax payers money going to...

The organization “Pratidhwani” Betul has been working for various social cause for the last many years. It has organized lecture series on social issues. Renowned writers and journalist like Shri Kuldeep Nair, Late Shri Shard Joshi, Shri Mudrarakshs, noted environmentalist Shri Rajendra Singh graced the functions organized by us in past.
We have also carried out awareness campaign for sports, inviting renowned swimmer Ms Bula Choudhary, Indian hockey team captain Shri Jafar Iqubal. Arjun Awardee Shri Jalauddin and noted Olympian Shri Aslam Sher Khan.
Beyond all controversies, a movement has begun to revive hockey at ground level, spearheaded by this organization. Since there is no club hockey in India, only ray of hope is from reviving institutional hockey at school and college level. In order to promote this concept with the forth coming World Cup Hockey to be organized in India , the organization has conceptualized a show match between Indian Hockey team that won 1975 World Cup Hockey and Moscow Olympic Gold Medalist Indian team, on 13th February 2010 at Betul. We have received the consents of the players and they are working closely with us to make this event a success. Unless we make hockey a social movement, it is difficult to get rid of Matto like persons.We have to p;ay out our own, in for the public by the public manner.Thus we are going school to school, coolege to college, every nook and corner asking parents, school authorities and students to fill an committment farm to play hockey.
Under present circumstances, benevolent help from every one like yours will be moral boosting and will take the movement long way achieving its target of restoring Indian Hockey to its glorious past.

Thanking you.

Hemant Chandra Dubey
Vice President.
Pratidhwani
07141-237143
n.c.dubey07@gmail.com

Its pathetic when we see the Hockey players protesting for their dues. Well this is much shameful especially when we know Hockey is our National Game. The Sports of India and Its Players are protesting. This is just a shameful event.

This situation is even worse when they are constantly performing good , and other players in other sports getting ten twenty times of their money. What they are getting is mere a drop in ocean. These babu think they are the master and all players are their servant. Let me tell them to all babus that they are babu because of these players , who put their everything for nation's pride.They are deprived of basic facilities for ages, even playing facilities.

The government is just sleeping as always told. At least their protest made them listen. Once Bhagat singh told "The deaf needs blast to hear " . I suppose the players are doing the right thing when showing their anger and protest. Let us show then that we are with them . Kuduos to Sahara for showing genuity to the players of National Sports.

I completely agree with you Rajesh. Infact, these jokers who are trying to give shit to our players.. do they even know one bit about the dedication and commitment that goes into making a good player. They better keep their moral lectures to themselves; with most of them at their current positions not because of any connection to the sport but to the corrupt ministers. In my opinion, they are not even qualified to hold their current positions, let alone give such remarks in the name of the nation. And I'm glad that our players didn't give up under such pressure! Way to go!

Self promoting politicians and their crony bureaucrats have done their best, knowingly or out self interest, to kill this sport in India. Its because of peoples' love the it that hockey has survived so far in some parts of the country. I coach a girls high school team in US and even though its a new sport to many Americans, they are adopting it at a large scale. A large number of high school and a growing number of middle schools have girls hockey team. Individuals and schools make efforts to raise funds so the kids can play.

Screw these politicians and their cronies, take charge, setup local teams, you have enough skill in every city, town to coach young players. If you love the game find 10-20 kids of young age and start coaching them. Have your friends in other cities do the same and play friendly tournaments.

Believe me, you can make a difference in spreading the game. Even though these parasites are spreading disease and trying to kill the game, you go and promote passion for the sport.

eatsleephockey@att.com

Media also played appreciable role to highlight the problem.
Incidently, out of funds available with Hockey India for last one and a half years, how much was given to the players and how much babus allowed to themselves as pay and perks, could have been mentioned.
Since time is running out, all that can be done must urgently follow to put our hockey in best shape.

Hi there,
I think the biggest trouble with a common man in india is that they do not have any real right to fight for their rights.Government does not do anyting great for the welfare of the society.this is the reason honesty,integrity,respect are just words for the indians.EVEN if the systems tries to help but that help goes to middle men. people all over the world does not respect indians coz we are the only race on the planet who loves to screw its own people.i have seen somes clips of that excellance less educated greedy boss of hockey india he was so arrogant I THINK HE NEEDS A KICK ON HIS BUTTS FOR PLAYING FOUL.GOVT SPENDS BILLIONS ON DEFENCE AND AT LEAST BILLIONS EMBEZZLED, BELEIVE IT OR NOT ' INCREDIBLE INDIA'. SHAME ON Y6A GUYS FOR MONEY YA CAN SELL YOUR SIS AND YA DO SELL HER WHEN YA PAY DOWRY TO PURCHASE GROOM.NOBODY RESPECT YA.

Completely agree with the author..just wish we can actually do something to remove these useless babus and long serving political sports administrators from their perch in the interest of Indian sports..because of these incompetent and self serving babus running Indian sports be it in hockey, football, athletics, shooting, cricket - everything from player and coach selection, sports venues,trainings, payments et al is completely politicised...so many budding immensely talented careers are nipped in the bud because of vested interests influencing player selection, yes-men instead of professional coaches are hired, solitary stadiums are rented out for money to host marriages and music festivals instead of allowing sports practice, cricket pitches in Kotla are made by sports kit manufacturers instead of curators, officials with zero knowledge of sports always outnumber players in foreign tours abroad and treat these trips as shopping junkets for their families instead of learning somthing from amazing advancements in sports management, infrastructure and practices from countries like China and UK and events like Beijing Olympics, legends like Dhyan Chand dying in poverty, PT Usha crying for not even getting a room to stay at national athletic meet, Dhanraj Pillay getting a Hero Cycle, Indian football languishing at rank No. 135 out of 180 playing nations...the list is too long and depressing to continue..surely a nation of a billion people and more, deserve better than seeing their national players begging for payments and the huge sports loving public praying hopelessly for a solitary medal or two so that we don't get humiliated at international sports events. Hope we forget our Chalta Hai attitude for once and alongwith media, build some real pressure to axe these self serving babus and bring in professionals into sports management.

Bulls eye, Sir. Yes again, as we have come to expect from you. Thanks

It is amazing that a country of 1.2 billion people cant produce officials and administrators of integrity to get Indian hockey out of the depths we have sunk to. The problem is compounded by the fact that there are very few hockey fans and followers left who are passionate about the game.
All you need to see is the number of responses that an article on hockey generates..this article here at best has 25 to 30 responses. Any article on cricket for eg on cricinfo.com easily generates a few hundred responses. Looks like we not only have to fight the hockey neta and babus , but also public apathy!!!!

Nice article Sir. It is a humble request to Times Group that they start some special programme highlighting concerns of our sports people and how these babus are clinching all the money given to sports by GoI .

Your scribe, Rajesh Khalra, has written well and his comments on the Babus in respect of their "Babugiri" or "Babupan" in shamelessly exploiting the helpless members of the national hockey contingent is praise worthy - indeed a humane service lending his public support to voice the plight of the unfortunate national players in which they are subjected to. Such Babus, in my opinion, are the lowest specimen of mankind and do not deserve to hold office in any public organisation. To satisfy their greed, they shamelessly cheat and take away what rightly belong to others thus inflicting misery on those poor souls. They sould be voted out of office and replaced by honest and capable office bearers. In this case, the golden opportunity to do so is at the next forthcoming Hockey India polls.
And it is time for them to organise themselves now.

We all the sport lovers of India should demand for the resignation of AK Mattoo and his colleagues for insulting the players. There is no guarantee that these people will not target the players from current hockey team in order to take revenge for their revolt. Remember that the matter has been resolved just because of the Sahara's money guarantee and Suresh Kalmadi's interference, but not because AK Matoo did tried anything to resolve the issue amicably. All he did during this crisis was to issue threats to the players. Even now he is silent. That means he has not agreed or willing to disburse the money to the players which has been guaranteed by Sahara. Neither has he issued any official statements saying that he has agreed for this arrangement with the players. In this given circumstance ONLY RESIGNATION can guarantee for the fair deal for the players, else the same old woes of the hockey players will definitely continue in future as well. Players have not demanded his resignation may be because they might fear losing the sympathy and support from the people for expecting too much. But as sports lovers we need not worry about it. Therefore I request all the sports lovers and the media to demand AK Mattoo's resignation at least. Let's not worry too much about the world cup. Let's worry about cleansing the Hockey Federation once and for all. If we can do that definitely we can expect many more achievements from our hockey players in future if not this world cup. We should not only demand for the resignation but also for a well structured and well constituted, transparent Hockey Federation. Definitely one press statement from Congress spokesman Manish Tiwari reminding Federations about their responsibilities is not enough and not done. Govt. must initiate a stern action in this case and go ahead to build a better organization to administer the sports in future. Until this happens one can’t say that this done and ‘All is well’. Definitely even now ‘Nothing is well'.

The article is spot on. To be selected to the national team takes some doing!!! I am sure the players come both for glory/pride and money but mostly from a pride perspective.

There are many sports bodies in India that are home to politicians. There are games within games. These national sports bodies have state bodies affiliated to them and these state bodies in turn have district bodies affiliated. In the game of elections, there is a lot of money and perks to be made. No one is worried about the larger picture of success in the field of play. The administrators are more concerned about keeping their administrative flock together and benefiting from the positions they hold.

Why should the Govt of India not recast the nature of working of these associations.? Why should Hockey India be the sole body to govern hockey? What representations do present and past sportsmen have on these bodies? These sports bodies have almost become "private organisations" in their functions. Family business so to speak.

Are these bodies not liable to some code of conduct and rules of operation, levels of performance, etc? Think it is time for the Govt to step in and demand accountability. The government should be held accountable for the performance of our sportsmen in the first place.

its very realistic article. hopefully the fate of game in india changes for the better for both players and india

Hocky players grievances should be redressed in proper manner weighing pros and cons.Due should be given to the players for sake of games and politics of power game should be kept aside.