WSH Advertisement on Geo Super channel in Pakistan

orld Series Hockey (WSH) has shattered the glass ceiling that existed for non-cricket, Indian sports on television. The assumption thus far was that Indian fans only cared for Indian cricket events or Foreign non-cricket events on television. However WSH showed that, if marketed properly, there is a viewer base for non-cricket Indian sporting properties on television.

Sample this - the weekly tune-ins during the first seven days of WSH was 6.3 million viewers in India, which was more than double that of the English Premier League (EPL) ratings in India, and far more than the ratings of the much touted Formula One telecasts.

Average Reach	Event
6.3 million	World Series Hockey (Week 1)
2.7 million	English Premier League
990,000	Formula One
440,000	Domestic I-League

Backed by a slick marketing campaign involving print, television and outdoor ensured enough sampling for WSH (i.e., viewers who watched at least one WSH match on television to get an idea of what the event is all about).

Through the WSH, Neo Sports was able to go one better than ESPN Star Sports, which is the broadcasting network for EPL in India.

Setting up live broadcast centres at eight venues in the country was a trailblazing accomplishment for the WSH. These issues are taken for granted in cricket in India, but not in hockey. Arumugam of Stick2Hockey.com put the live telecasts of WSH in perspective:

"None of the international hockey series and tournaments that take place across the globe are ever telecast in India, barring occasional India-Pakistan matches. Even for top-tier events like the Olympics and World Cup, there will sometimes be no live telecast for matches held on the second pitch located next to the main turf, or even for matches in the same city but in another stadium . Against the prevailing backdrop of hockey's muted profile on Indian television, high-end live telecasts of 2-3 matches each day, for a month, from multiple locations, is simply unbelievable. What WSH has achieved is huge - Indian sports fans have become habituated to witness hockey night after night, before and after dinner, on weekdays and on holidays."

Said a Mumbai-based media planner, "WSH started just after the Olympic Qualifier ended, and ended just before cricket's IPL began on April 4. For WSH advertisers, this was a low-cost, short-term investment in a sport which is rapidly gaining eyeballs."

Advertisers are clearly happy. Said Anuradha Agarwal, Vodafone's Senior Vice President for Consumer Insights and Communications, "We evaluate all sponsorship proposals on a cost per reach basis, and the on level of consumer engagement. The WSH was efficient on both counts. We felt this was a good time to be associated with the game of hockey. It has the potential to grow in India. And we are pleasantly surprised with the execution of the WSH."

Spot ads on WSH were in the region of 40,000 per 10 seconds, for a complete package involving both on-ground and on-air presence. This was just a tenth of the cost of a 10-second spot on IPL, which costs upwards of 4 lakh.

C. V. L. Srinivas, chairman of Starcom MediaVest India, a global communication & media services group, says "Many advertisers today see cricket as overpriced. Emerging new leagues give them an opportunity to enter the sports market at a much lower cost."

WSH booked 15 brands on-air in the first week, with a projected increase to 40-50 brands by the time the tournament ended on April 2, yielding 50-60 crore from sponsorship and advertising revenues. Experts say this is unprecedented for hockey, which has never attracted this kind of advertiser interest before

We give Nimbus COO Yannick Colaco the last word, "We are easily the No. 2 sports league in India already. In three years, we want to be competitive with cricket's Indian Premier League (IPL). There are an average of 130-140 'cricket days' in a year (i.e., days when international/IPL cricket is played). WSH is not here to topple cricket - every event cannot be an IPL, but we have demonstrated that there is a place for non-cricket sports on Indian television."

Graphic courtesy The Economic Times

he amount of money involved in conducting World Series Hockey (WSH) was mind boggling and unprecedented, not only for non-cricket Indian sports but also for world hockey. The International Hockey Federation (FIH), for all its reach, mandate and marketing muscle, and despite all the hosting fees that it collects, has been simply shamed by the WSH in terms of the prize money given out to teams and players at the conclusion of the WSH.

The sport of hockey was the winner, and it was WSH that was the catalyst for this change. WSH had a budget in the range of 125 - 150 crore, with some of the major spends being:

Amount	Description
30 crore	WSH Tournament Marketing
20 crore	Infrastructure and Stadium Upgrades
8-10 crore	Spends by each Franchise

It was heartening to see hockey players gravitate into the five-star hotel orbit, a luxury reserved so far only for cricketers in India. The franchise owners ensured the best of facilities for the players, who travelled in luxury air conditioned coaches, flew from centre to centre, and were accommodated in star hotels rather than dormitories, college hostels, army barracks or shanties.

Nimbus COO Yannick Colaco said, "We have succeeded in creating a strong sporting branding that is based 'In India', and is 'For India'. It has been shown that hockey is the only sport after cricket that can deliver a national viewership in India. The awareness and buzz around WSH was unprecedented across all touch points, while the response from the commercial ecosystem for sponsorship and advertising has been overwhelming."

WSH title sponsor Bridgestone is paying 2 crore per year in a 3-year sponsorship deal, far less than the 40 crore per year that DLF is paying for title sponsorship of cricket's IPL. Bridgestone was expecting 10 crore worth of media mileage from their title sponsorship.

Besides Bridgestone, the other principal sponsors of WSH were Vodafone and Imperial Blue (Pernod Ricard India).

The glamour element, though, was missing from the WSH franchises. Actor Suneil Shetty was the only big name associated with a WSH franchise. There were no Shahrukh Khans, Preity Zintas or Ambanis who want to own a hockey team. Instead, the franchise owners were companies such as 'Chennai Sports Organizers Pvt. Ltd.', 'Sporting Ace Pvt. Ltd.', and 'Sai Grace Sports & Events Pvt. Ltd.'

As Arumugam said on Stick2Hockey.com: "An injection of cash was critical to revive hockey in India. Nimbus and the IHF have delivered on what they promised. It is time to raise a toast to them." We say Amen to that.

WSH Schedule Week 1

rumugam wrote the following about World Series Hockey (WSH) logistics on Stick2Hockey.com:.

• 8 venues, all floodlit, with one stadium belonging to the Central Government, one to a private hockey body, and others belonging to State Government agencies.
  
• 2-3 live telecasts each day, for 34 days, with only 3 rest days in between.
  
• 2-3 matches each day in geographically spread out venues, sometimes as far as 2000 km apart. Shifting teams from one venue to the next for non-stop matches over a month.
  
• Putting up each team in top notch hotels, with even umpires and officials being given single rooms.
  
• Video referrals in each and every WSH match, which even the prestigious 2010 Commonwealth Games Hockey tournament, held in two venues in one city (Delhi), could not provide.
  
• No match started late, nowhere did the floodlights go off for even a minute, no video referral took more than the expected time.
  
• New synthetic pitches laid in time for this event, with brand new floodlighting, stands and hockey facilities with change rooms

All of the above is proof that the WSH was driven minutely by professional excellence. The WSH, unlike Commonwealth Games 2010, showed that Indians are capable of shattering the bureaucratic maze for which we Indians are masters.

Photograph Courtesy - Olivia in India blog

oing by the response in namma Bengaluru, World Series Hockey (WSH) has proved to be a smashing hit. For all the seven home matches of Karnataka Lions, fans thronged the stadium, and the houseful stands bathed the stadium in a sea of yellow, showing unprecedented strength and support for hockey.

Each time Len Aiyappa, clearly a favourite among the fans, stepped out to take a penalty corner, the whole stadium would chant 'Aiyappa! Aiyappa!'.

As a fan Shashank Gupta wrote on Stick2Hockey.com:

"The view inside the stadium for the WSH semi-final in Bengaluru was unimaginable. A panoramic view of the East stand revealed people, people and only people. Even in the West stand, the crowd kept pouring in with little space left to sit. Outside, there was a long queue waiting to clear the security check. Children, families, young people, middle-aged people, ladies, gentlemen, singles and couples descended down to the stadium in various colors, along with their banners.

With electrifying music, cheer girls, dhols, drums, LCD display and electronic scoreboard, it was a dream-come-true setting for a hockey fan. The fans seemed to come to the stadium for a family outing - a hockey-based family outing. Wow!"

The same was the case in other WSH centres also. In Chennai, the fan following Imran Warsi of Pakistan commanded during WSH matches had to be seen to be believed. In a league match against Bhopal Badshahs in Chennai, when Imran was injured and taken out of the field, the spectators chanted 'Warsi, Warsi'. And after he returned to the field, the chants became even louder.

Similarly, the Mahindra Stadium in Mumbai was near full capacity (5,000) for a league match between Mumbai Marines and Sher-e-Punjab on 14th March. The previously decrepit stadium had a new paint job, sported a new turf, and was bursting with young people who had strolled over from nearby colleges in Churchgate, paying 50 or 100 for a ticket on a week night.

The atmosphere in Mumbai for the WSH final between Sher-e-Punjab and Pune Styrkers was impressive. But to keep things in persepctive, the atmosphere for the Olympic Qualifier final, held just a month earlier in Delhi, was electrifying. The turnout for the final in Mumbai was a modest 5,000, compared to the nearly 20,000 packed fans for the Olympic Qualifier final.

The cold weather cities of Delhi and Jalandhar had cold responses to the WSH. And on another note, there was no WSH venue on the entire Eastern Zone of India - no city from among Kolkata, Ranchi, Rourkela, Hyderabad, Imphal, etc. in the eastern part of India hosted a WSH match.

The lasting achievement of the WSH was that it became trendy and cool to go to a hockey game once again. Two years ago, the tag line for the 2010 World Cup Hockey was 'Phir dil do hockey ko'. The fans that showed up for the WSH matches demonstrated this tag line in real life, and for providing such an opportunity for fans to reconnect with the game, we have WSH to be thankful for.

Mahindra Stadium, Churchgate, Mumbai (photograph courtesy World Series Hockey)

he talent on display in the World Series Hockey (WSH) was an ensemble of retired legends, semi-retired players, discards and fringe players. The quality of play was competent, but not world class. It is safe to say that 80% of the player who participated in the WSH will not make their country's national teams for the 2012 Olympics.

For instance, the majority of the top Indian hockey players did not participate in the WSH, and instead attended the London Olympics preparatory camp organised by Hockey India. This includes stars like Sandeep Singh, Sardar Singh, Shivendra Singh, Tushar Khandkar, Yuvraj Valmeeki, Bharat Chetri and Sreejesh.

Some of the Olympic probables even returned the contract money paid to them by Nimbus for their participation in WSH, while terming their contract as void.

For instance, Shivendra Singh returned 90,000 while Tushar Khandkar returned 63,000 respectively, which was 40% of their contract fee, given to them as advance payment.

With the exception of the Pakistanis, no foreign player in the WSH was an active member of their current national hockey team. The same was the case with the coaching staff - no currently active national hockey coach participated as a coach in the WSH.

Said 1975 World Cup-winning captain Ajitpal Singh, "WSH is a combination of mostly youngsters and those who have retired from the game. The standard of hockey will not be great if active international players are missing from the event."

The Indian Cricket League (ICL), promoted by Zee Television, died because it did not have a buy-in from the BCCI, and so could not draw the best of the current players. WSH should take care it does not go the ICL way, for once the novelty of the event dies down, the talent on display will become a factor to the discerning fan.

Then there is always the Club vs. Country factor. Playing part-time for some private club owned by some rich industrialist is a job, while playing for the country is a privilege.

As a participant in the WSH put it, "Playing hockey for India is the most special thing. A real star is someone who has made a name for himself by playing for the country. I have got some respect because of WSH. But that is nothing compared to the lifelong respect an Olympian gets."

Photograph by Dinesh Krishnan, courtesy Forbes India

he Photograph of the Month for April 2012 is of Michael Nobbs, chief coach of the Indian national men's hockey team - probably the most high profile, as well as the most volatile coaching job in world hockey.

Michael Nobbs made it to the cover of Forbes India magazine, with the tag line on the cover reading, "(Re)Builder of Dreams - How Michael Nobbs got Indian Hockey to believe in itself".

Pick up the latest issue of the Forbes India magazine to read articles like How Michael Nobbs Transformed Indian Hockey, Why the Aussies Rule World Hockey and an interview with Ric Charlesworth titled You Have to Plan Long-Term.

t has never been a better time to be an Indian hockey player, specifically, an Indian men's hockey player.

First, World Series Hockey (WSH) provided 34 days of live hockey coverage, and prize money on a scale unprecedented in Indian non-cricket sports. WSH winner Sher-e-Punjab received 4 crore in prize money.

Gurjinder Singh of the Chandigadh Comets received 1 crore for being selected as WSH's Most Valuable Player, and an additional 25 lakh for being WSH's Top Goal Scorer (joint). He hasn't even turned 20 years yet. For Gurjinder's 50-year-old father Sarwan Singh, a crore of rupees is unfathomable, given that he has spent his adult life dealing in merely thousands of rupees.

Tribal player Roshan Minz, winner of a WSH award worth 50 lakh says, "You can't live just on honour alone. My father died when I was sixteen, and since then my priority has been to take care of my family. WSH was a way I could provide for my family, buy them a house in Bhubhanesvar, and even have a little left for myself."

Leading business conglomerate Sahara India Parivar, which had earlier announced a cash incentive of 1.16 crore to the Indian men's team players and support staff on winning the Delhi Olympic Qualifier, kept its word and presented the promised purse at a glittering ceremony in Lucknow that was attended by Sahara India chief Subrato Roy.

Sardar Singh (Most Valuable Player of the Qualifier) and Sandeep Singh (Top Goal Scorer of the Qualifier) were awarded 11 lakh each (about USD 22,500), while each of the other men's team members as well as chief coach Michael Nobbs were given 5 lakh each (USD 10,500). The support staff got an incentive of 1 lakh. In a nice gesture, even the taxes on the cash awards were borne by Sahara, thus their total expenditure amounted to 1.29 crore.

In another felicitation function in Delhi, the Indian men's team for the Olympic Qualifier was awarded 1 lakh and an Apple iPad each by Hockey India, and 1 lakh each by the Lalit Group of hotels. The coaching and support staff were handed 50,000 each by both the above-mentioned donors. Sandeep Singh and Sardar Singh got an additional 1 lakh each from Hockey India for their superlative performance in the Olympic Qualifier.

In another felicitation function in Pune, the Indian men's team for the Olympic Qualifier, as well as the entire support staff, was awarded an Apple iPhone 4S, a shawl and a bouquet each by Emcure Pharmaceuticals CEO Satish Mehta and COO Arun Khanna. Mehta promised that more honours would come the team's way if it finishes in the top six at the Olympics

Meanwhile Bengaluru-based sports management firm, Switch-Hit Sports, has announced endorsment deals with drag-flicker V. Raghunath and forward S. K. Uthappa.

Uthappa, an attacking forward, came into the limelight after the 2011 Hockey Indian Nationals in Bhopal, where he won the Player of the Tournament award, while Raghunath, who has more than a ton of goals to his name, has been playing in the Indian team for over six years.

Founded in 2011, Switch-Hit Sports is the brainchild of Dhruv Mullick, who had earlier stints at the UB Group's Sports Marketing division, Professional Management Group and Globosport India, before launching his entrepreneurial venture.

Also, Jaypee Cement signed endorseement deals with three Indian hockey players - Sardar Singh, Sandeep Singh, and Shivendra Singh. The announcement was made by the company's executive vice-president, Shiva Dixit, at a function at Jaypee Golf and Spa Resort in Greater Noida

Indian cricket legends Sachin Tendular, V. V. S. Lakshman and badminton star Saina Nehval are other stars associated with Jaypee.

Hockey Wizard Dhyan Chand

s many as four cinema production houses are in various stages of research and planning for their film on Major Dhyan Chand. While the names are hard to confirm, the list could possibly include Yash Raj Films, which produced the blockbuster hit Chak de! India, Walkwater Media, owned by Manmohan Shetty, and independent film maker Satyajeet Puri.

Olympian Ashok Kumar, one of the sons of Dhyan Chand, is on record as to providing legal rights to a unnamed cinema company, which some say could be Walkwater Media.

Also, Shah Rukh Khan has been approached for the leading role in the biopic, and the actor is said to be keen on working in the project

Talking to a daily, Shah Rukh Khan confirmed, "Yes, I have been approached for a movie based on the life of the legendary Dhyan Chandji. Hockey as a sport isn't new to me, since I have been an athlete during my school and college life, and I have especially played a lot of hockey, including captaining the St. Columbia's school hockey team in Delhi.

Says Satyajeet Puri, "I have been working on the concept on and off over the past two years. Dhyan Chand was a one-man army. My film will be a tribute to all the hockey players who still play a sport that could have been dead a long time ago in our country."

Also, Irfan Khan, after winning accolades for his role of an athlete-turned dacoit act in Paan Singh Tomar, is now keen to essay the role of the wizard Dhyan Chand in a biopic based on the legend's life.

"It has been one of my dreams to do a role on Dhyan Chand. His story is amazing, and he made the country very proud. Dhyan Chand made a very big name for himself in the field of hockey, and seeing the condition of hockey today, we should definitely make a film on the legend," Irfan told reporters at the DVD launch of his film Paan Singh Tomar in Mumbai.

Continued Ifran, "Filmmakers today have realised that the audience is hungry for original subjects, and want to see our own stories. They want to see films that have an identity, and whose roots are based here."

Dhyan Chand, who is considered to be one of the greatest hockey players of all time, is most remembered for his goal-scoring feats and for his three Olympic hockey gold medals (1928, 1932, and 1936) in the pre-Independence era, when India ruled the hockey world.

he April 2012 Visitor of the Month is Ms. Anuradha Bose from the Vedanta Institute in Kolkata, who wrote the following to BharatiyaHockey.org:

Kind Attention: Mr. Michael Nobbs
Chief Coach, Indian Men's Hockey Team

At the outset, please accept our sincere appreciation of your efforts to improve Team India in your role as the chief coach of the Indian hockey team. And congratulations to Team India for qualifying for the London Olympics.

I write this letter to introduce Mr. L. Ramaswamy of the Vedanta Institute in Kolkata,who has dedicated over 15 years in the study, research and propagation of the timeless knowledge of Vedanta.

The practical application of Vedanta is of utmost necessity for those who handle high-pressure situations at a relatively young age, like sportspersons and movie stars.

With reference to hockey, nobody can deny the glorious past enjoyed by India. It is sad that over time it has come down to its current deplorable state, because of various reasons. However, we are confident of a turnaround, and your recent interview in Forbes India magazine confirms our optimism. In the interview you had mentioned about your attachment to India, instilling the desire to win among the players, putting their God-gifted skills to optimal use, and managing pressures and handling huge expectations of results.

It is precisely here that the scientific knowledge of Vedanta comes handy. The knowledge improves the strength of one's intellect, by which the player can control and guide his emotions. It helps one to improve the player's levels of concentration and consistency. Hockey being a team sport, requires its players to control their personal ego and play in a spirit of cooperative endeavour. This attitude is what the knowledge of Vedanta will foster.

In the recent past, Mr Ramaswamy had introduce this knowledge to the Indian cricket team, when Mr. John Wright was the coach. It had a positive impact on individual lives and team performances.

I would be delighted to arrange an initial meeting between you and Mr. Ramaswamy to explore this further. We await your response.

Statistics by B. G. Joshi and Bob Davidzon of Netherlands

he April 2012 edition of Fun with Numbers is on the Netherlands men's and women's teams' records in Olympic hockey.

NETHERLANDS MEN'S HOCKEY

Netherlands is the only country apart from India to have won back-to-back Olympic hockey gold medals. They accomplished this feat in the 1996/2000 Olympics.

Year	Venue	P	W	L	D	GF	GA	Captain	Coach	Rank
1928	Amsterdam	4	2	1	1	8	5	Rein de Waal	Joop Wagener	2
1936	Berlin	5	3	1	1	13	10	Rein de Waal	Jaap Ufford	3
1948	London	7	4	2	1	17	12	Dick Loggere	Rein de Waal	3
1952	Helsinki	3	2	1	0	3	6	Dick Loggere	Rein de Waal	2
1960	Rome	6	3	2	1	11	10	Jan Dorens	Jan Anjema	9
1964	Tokyo	8	4	3	1	21	7	Jan van Gooswilligen	Piet Bromberg	7
1968	Mexico City	9	6	3	0	15	12	Jan-Piet Fokker	Piet Bromberg	5
1972	Munich	9	5	3	1	21	14	Nico Spits	Ab van Grimbergen	4
1976	Montreal	7	5	2	0	14	8	André Bolhuis	Wim van Heumen	4
1984	Los Angeles	7	3	2	2	18	14	Ties Kruize	Wim van Heumen	6
1988	Seoul	7	4	2	1	15	9	Cees-Jan Diepeveen	Hans Jorritsma	3
1992	Barcelona	7	4	3	0	25	17	Marc Delissen	Joost Bellaart	4
1996	Atlanta	7	6	0	1	20	8	Marc Delissen	Roelant Oltmans	1
2000	Sydney	7	2	1	4	14	11	Jacques Brinkman	Maurits Hendriks	1
2004	Athens	7	6	1	0	20	13	Jeroen Delmee	Terry Walsh	2
2008	Beijing	7	4	1	2	19	13	Jeroen Delmee	Roelant Oltmans	4
TOTAL		107	63	28	12	259	123			2G, 3S, 3B

NETHERLANDS WOMEN'S HOCKEY

Except for the 1992 Olympics, the Netherlands women's hockey team has won a medal in every Olympics that they participated in.

On the 2 occasions that they won the Gold, the Netherlands women's team went undefeated throughout the tournament, including the rare feat of winning 7 of 7 matches in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Year	Venue	P	W	L	D	GF	GA	Captain	Coach	Rank
1984	Los Angeles	5	4	0	1	14	6	Lisette Sevens	Gijs van Heumen	1
1988	Seoul	5	4	1	0	14	6	Marjolein Eysvogel	Gijs van Heumen	3
1992	Barcelona	5	3	2	0	6	5	Carina Beninga	Franklin Dikmoet	6
1996	Atlanta	8	3	2	3	15	15	Carole Thate	Tom van't Hek	3
2000	Sydney	8	3	3	2	14	18	D.v.d.Boogaard	Tom van't Hek	3
2004	Athens	6	4	1	1	17	9	Mijntje Donners	Marc Lammers	2
2008	Beijing	7	7	0	0	21	5	Minke Booij	Marc Lammers	1
TOTAL		44	29	9	7	101	64			2G, 1S, 3B