Image courtesy South African Hockey Association

he Indian and South African men's hockey teams qualified for the 2012 London Olympics, but the path they took to London is a study in contrasts.

Number of Matches: Over the past 3 years (May 2009 - May 2012), South Africa played a total of 37 men's hockey internationals and had just 4 training camps, per South African Hockey Association (SAHA) president Dave Carr.

Over this same time period, India played a total of 107 men's hockey internationals (nearly 3 times that of South Africa), and had around 20 training camps (5 times that of South Africa).

Olympic Qualification: Indian men's team lost the continental championship (Asian Games) and failed to directly qualify for the 2012 London Olympics. South Africa won its continental championship (All Africa Games), yet was not allowed to go to London by its own Olympic Committee (SASCOC). Both Indian and South African men then had to win their respective Olympic Qualifiers to be able to eventually qualify for the 2012 London Olympics.

Stature of the Game: Hockey has the status of being the National Game of India. In South Africa, hockey is a fringe sport, with the main sports being rugby, football and cricket.

Financial Security: All Indian men's hockey players have jobs based on their hockey skills. They get unlimited leave to participate in international and domestic tournaments. Indian junior men and junior women players get a monthly stipend from Hockey India, with the senior men and women also expected to get graded contracts.

In South Africa, the men's hockey players have regular day jobs outside of hockey, and need to apply for leave, or quit and look for other jobs, in order to participate in tournaments. Monthly stipends to hockey players are unheard of in South Africa, even in the players' wildest dreams.

As South African men's hockey coach Gregg Clark put it, "I get paid from time to time. It's not a regular cheque every month. My salary is more of a tournament-based thing, because times are tough. In fact, my family and a lot of people think I am crazy to do what I am doing."

Team Sponsor: South African men's hockey team has no team sponsor. They barely survive with the minimal funding received from the National Lotteries Board, their Olympic Committee (SASCOC) and the Department of Sports and Recreation (DSR). Much of this money is sport-specific (to grow the sport at the grassroots level) and not team-specific (for the exclusive use of the national team).

Back in February 2010, CEO Marissa Langeni had said: "The senior men's team had to pay total costs for a training camp in October 2009 and, in addition, they had to pay R10,000 per player to participate in the BDO Men's Champions Challenge. Furthermore, they were required to source an additional R220,000, which they managed to raise with the help of ex-national players."

Fast forward to 2012. As SAHA president Dave Carr put it, "I am not sure how many people are aware that for the 2012 Olympic Qualifier, Japan were in a camp for 7 MONTHS before the tournament. Due to funding constraints, our guys got together 7 DAYS before the event."

The Indian men's hockey team has had Sahara sponsoring them for the past decade, with every major tournament victory resulting in a flood of rewards from Sahara and other corporates.

Modern day hockey is no longer an amateur or elitist sport. In the world of professional sports, it is money that determines the niumber of matches a team plays, the number of training camps that get held, and the financial incentives that lets players devote full time to their sport.

South African hockey, whether men's or women's has none of the above. Yet the fact that both the teams qualified for the 2012 London Olympics, not once but two times over, is not only remarkable, but also inspiring to sportspersons worldwide.

Photograph courtesy World Series Hockey

irst for some perspective. The top 7 men's hockey teams in the world per the FIH World Rankings are: 1 - Australia, 2 - Germany, 3 - Netherlands, 4 - England, 5 - Spain, 6 - South Korea, 7 - New Zealand. There was not a single current national team player, or current national team coach from any of these 7 countries in the inaugural Bridgestone World Series Hockey competition.

Another way of looking at this - more than 80% of the participants in the inaugural World Series Hockey would not make it to the current national hockey teams of their respective countries, based on merit, fitness and high performance levels.

This absence of quality is the only knock against the otherwise splendid World Series Hockey, which for the first time brought in a combination of healthy pay packets, upgraded stadium infrastructure, professional event management and live telecasts from multiple cities on a daily basis to Indian audiences. The fact that 31.136 million viewers tuned in the tournament (Tam Sports CS 4+ yrs, All India) is quite an achievement for non-cricket Indian sports.

The inaugural World Series Hockey was played from February 29 to April 2, 2012. At the end of the regular season, the Points Table was as follows:

Rank	Team	P	W	L	D	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Chandigadh Comets	14	9	4	1	46	34	+12	28
2	Sher-e-Punjab	14	8	5	1	45	35	+10	25
3	Karnataka Lions	14	7	7	0	34	40	-6	21
4	Pune Strykers	14	6	5	3	41	42	-1	21
5	Delhi Wizards	14	6	7	1	36	37	-1	19
6	Chennai Cheetahs	14	6	7	1	41	43	-2	19
7	Bhopal Badshahs	14	5	7	2	32	37	-5	17
8	Mumbai Marines	14	4	9	1	32	39	-7	13

Last-placed Mumbai Marines was last on multiple metrics - Mumbai had the least number of wins, maximum number of losses, least goals scored, maximum goal differential and least number of points.

In the semi-finals held on April 1, Sher-e-Punjab beat Karnataka Lions 4-1 in the first semi-final held in Bengaluru, while Pune Strykers beat Chandigadh Comets 4-4 (3-2) on penalties in the second semi-final in Mumbai.

In the final held on April 2 in a packed Mahindra Stadium in Mumbai, Sher-E-Punjab beat Pune Strykers 5-2 to win the title. V. S. Vinaya, Deepak Thakur, Harpreet Singh Nagra and skipper Prabjyot Singh (2) scored for the winners, while Tyran Periera and Simrandeep Singh Randhawa scored for the runners-up.

The following were the tournament awards:

• WSH Rockstar (1 crore) - Gurjinder Singh (Chandigadh Comets)
• WSH Indian Superstar (50 lakh) - Roshan Minz (Pune Strykers)
• WSH Top Goal Scorer (25 lakh) - shared by Gurjinder Singh (Chandigadh Comets) and Syed Imran Warsi (Chennai Cheetahs)
• WSH Game Changer (25 lakh) - Shakeel Abbasi (Delhi Wizards)
• WSH Rookie of the League (10 lakh) - Lalit Upadhyay (Bhopal Badshahs)
• WSH Coach of the League - Rajinder Singh (Sher-e-Punjab)

Among the dignitaries who attended the final were Union Sports Minister Ajay Maken, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Hindi film star Suniel Shetty, Indian hockey legend M. P. Ganesh and Pakistani great Shahbaz Ahmed.

Photograph courtesy PhotoSport New Zealand

double-leg 4-nation women's hockey tournament was held at the Harbour Hockey Stadium (North Harbour) and Llyod Elsmore Hockey Stadium (Auckland) in New Zealand, from April 12 through April 22.

India managed to win only 1 match in the double-leg tournament, finishing last in the first leg and 3rd in the second leg. Match results are shown below:

Leg	Venue	Stage	Date	Result	Goals Scorers - India
I	North Harbour	League	Apr 12	New Zealand 2 - India 1	Thokchom Anuradha Devi (40 min)
			Apr 13	India 1 - USA 1	Deepika (27 min)
			Apr 15	Australia 1 - India 0
		3rd vs. 4th	Apr 16	USA 2 - India 1 (GG)	Thokchom Chanchan Devi (56 min)
II	Auckland	League	Apr 18	USA 3 - India 0
			Apr 19	Australia 5 - India 2	Rani (13 min) Poonam Ran (63 min), PC
			Apr 21	India 3 - New Zealand 3	Rani (15 min) Vandana Katariya (55 min) Thokchom Chanchan Devi (56 min)
		3rd vs. 4th	Apr 22	India 1 - USA 0	Deepika (40 min)

The following were the tournament awards:

• Goalkeeper of the Tournament: Yogeeta Bali (India)
• Player of the Tournament: Madonna Blyth (Australia)

The Indian team for the double-leg 4-nation tournament was as follows:

Goalkeepers: Yogeeta Bali, Sukhmani Virk

Full-Backs: Joydeep Kaur (vice captain), Kirandeep Kaur, Thokchom Pinki Devi

Midfielders: Deepika, Asunta Lakra, Ritu Rani (captain), P. Susheela Chanu, Mukta Prava Barla, Kiran Dahiya

Forwards: Rani, Vandana Katariya, Thokchom Chanchan Devi, Poonam Rani, Thokchom Anuradha Devi, Anoopa Barla, Navneet Kaur

he 16th Kodava Family Hockey Utsav took place between April 21 - May 13, 2012 at the Ammathi High School grounds in Ammathi, Kodagu, Karnataka. This year's host was the Iychettira family, and the tournament witnessed 217 family-based teams playing a total of 216 matches to produce the eventual winner..

Kodagu is one of the cradles of Indian hockey. Over the years, this region has produced over 50 international players, including 7 Olympians. Current members of the Indian men's hockey team from Kodagu include S. K. Uttappa, V. R. Raghunath and S. V. Sunil.

The inauguration, first match, semifinal and final matches was held at the 25,000-seater Ammatthi High School ground. Indian men's team coach Michael Nobbs as well as members of the Indian national hockey team attended the Opening Ceremony.

The Karnataka government granted 30 lakh for the Hockey Utsav, Union External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna gave a grant of 12 lakh from his MP's fund, and in addition several private companies sponsored the programme.

The hockey festival concluded with the Palanganda team winning the trophy beating the Kaliyanda team by 2-1. This was the third consecutive title win for the Palanganda team.

The winning Palanganda team won a cash prize of 1.5 lakh, along with the trophy. The following were the tournament awards:

• Player of the Final: Palanganda Prajval
• Top Scorer of the Tournament: Kaliyanda Kiran
• Best Upcoming Player: Mandepanda Sajan Acchaiah
• Goalkeeper of the Tournament: Kandanda Bose Acchaiah
• Defender of the Tournament: Machamada Gautham Ganapathy
• Forward of the Tournament: Palanganda Prajval, Palanganda Kalappa
• Best Youth Player: Thithimada Prajwal Bopaiah
• Best Senior Player: Mandeda Girish Kaverappa
• Best Woman Player: Kokanda Krithika
• Best Student Player: Ainanda Akash Poovanna

The Kodava hockey will be hosted by Madanda family in 2013. Kodava Hockey Academy president Pandanda Kuttappa handed over the tournament flag to the Madanda family members.

Dileep Tirkey at the Chota Nagpur Tribal Hockey Festival in Delhi

he Hockey Association of Chota Nagpur Tribals, New Delhi, organised the Chhota Nagpur Knockout Tribal Hockey Tournament commencing 17th March 2012 at the Major Dhyan Chand National Hockey Stadium in Delhi.

The tournament saw participation from 32 tribal men's hockey teams and 3 tribal women's hockey teams. The men's final was played between Shuttering Club of Noida and Ekta Club of Mehrauli-Gurgaon, with Ekta winning the title. Held annually since 1997, the tournament had a title sponsor for the first time this year in ONGC.

Sushil Lakra, a Grade A hockey umpire and an ex-player, founded the Hockey Association of Chota Nagpur Tribals in the late 1970s along with retired assistant commissioner of police in Delhi, Emil Lakra. The Association has former Minister Dr. Rameshwar Oraon and Arjuna Puraskar winner Michael Kindo as its Patrons, while Sushil Lakra is its President.

The association conducts 2 annual hockey tournaments in the capital. Each team contributes 2,000 for the league, and 500 for the knockout tournament. The players come from a wide variety of backgrounds, from government workers to domestic helps. The tournament offers no prize money or rewards; the only incentive for those playing is a sense of community and identity away from home through the sport of hockey.

Says Sushil, "All these players have regular day jobs and hardly get to play or practice hockey. It is only during the tournament that they get a chance to play. But hockey is part of our culture, and more than anything else, this tournament helps keep our love for hockey alive."

According to rough estimates, about 1.5 lakh tribals live in the Delhi National Capital Region. The capital has a total of 38 tribal hockey teams comprising around 500 tribal players.

Rajya Sabha MP Dileep Tirkey was the chief guest for the tournament final, and was treated as a celebrity by the large number of fans who had turned up to watch the final on Turf Nos. 2 of the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium. As women in traditional wear welcomed Tirkey by sprinkling rose water and draping tribal shawls, a crowd of youngsters surged ahead to click pictures with the former India captain.

"For us, Dileep is the biggest star. Everyone wants to be like him. More importantly, it is his simple nature that makes him so loved," says Sushil Lakra.

Photograph of Dhyan Chand by Sam Hood, courtesy State Library of New South Wales collection

he Photograph of the Month for May 2012 is of Hockey Wizard Dhyan Chand, taken by photographer Sam Hood during a 1935 tour of Australia and New Zealand.

The 1935 Indian team sailed from Colombo to Fremantle to start the Australian leg of their journey. The team played matches at Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, winning all the matches by large margins.

The team then sailed from Sydney to Wellington for the New Zealand leg of their journey.

n the Olympic year, and especially after a strong showing in the Olympic Qualifier in Delhi, Indian men's hockey is seeing an uptick in its brand value.

Three stars - drag-flicker Sandeep Singh, midfielder Sardar Singh and striker Shivendra Singh - have inked four deals each so far, with a total collective worth of 4-4.5 crore.

Besides the trio, forward S. V. Sunil, skipper Bharat Chhetri and goalkeeper P. R. Sreeejesh have also signed a contract each, while other contracts are in the pipeline.

Said an official representing IOS Sports and Entertainment, "Immediately after the Olympic qualification, we approached close to 50-60 clients, and 10 of them were very, very keen on hockey players. In comparison to cricket, a company has to invest only one-tenth the amount in other sports."

In hockey, top liquor, cola, sport apparel, cement and fitness goods companies have shown interest in getting endorsements from hockey players. The buzz has it that the 25-year old Sandeep Singh could soon make an appearance in a television commercial, just ahead of the London Games.

"Going forward, several brands will be stepping out of the safety zone of cricket and Bollywood to leverage exciting opportunities available through other sports. Should the Indian hockey team continue to perform as well as they have recently, we have little doubt that hockey will be the sport leading this welcome change," said Tarun Mehrishi, COO of IOS Sports & Entertainment.

Similarly, in Mumbai, Tilaknagar Industries Ltd. roped in star players Sandeep Singh, Sardar Singh, Shivendra Singh and S. V. Sunil as the brand ambassadors for its Mansion House Brandy, the flagship brand of Tilaknagar Industries.

"Our brand Mansion House is based on the theme of 'Have Courage'. And this spirit is strongly emphasized by Indian Hockey, and the players we have associated with. There is a natural synergy between the players and the brand," says K. Laxmi Narasimhan, Deputy Managing Director, Tilaknagar Industries.

Article by Nitin Sharma of The Indian Express
Photograph courtesy The Hindu

qbal Singh Saroya, a resident of Mohali, started following Indian hockey in 1966 after India won the Asian Games men's hockey gold. Ever since then, Iqbal has been a collector of information on the eight-time Olympic gold medal winning Indian hockey team.

The endeavour to present Indian hockey fans with a book, which had complete information on the winning members of the eight Olympic squads of Indian hockey started in 1987 for the 69-year-old author. Saroya travelled to cities like Dehradun, Lucknow, Amritsar, Jalandhar and Delhi in search of information from the surviving hockey team members for including in his book - Hockey de Sultan.

"It is a long cherished dream coming true for me. As a student studying at Udaipur in the 1960s, I was always fascinated with hockey and wanted to do something for hockey. Later I joined Punjab Public Service Commission and due to job constraints, I could not devote much time on the book. But I kept travelling and meeting the surviving members of the Olympic winning teams. The period from 1987 and 2001 was devoted to collecting information and photographs for the book. Once I retired in 2001, the main work on the book started," says Saroya, who retired as General Manager from PEPSU Road Transport Corporation.

A regular column writer on hockey in vernacular and English dailies, it was a daunting task for Saroya to contact players in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and elsewhere. From hockey legend Dhyan Chand to triple Olympic Gold medalist Balbir Singh Sr., Saroya has put together a directory of 20 legends, including players like Dhyan Chand, Roop Singh, K. D. Singh (Babu), Balbir Singh Sr., Jaipal Singh, Feroze Khan, Lal Shah Bukhari, Gurmeet Singh Kular, Haripal Kaushik and Shankar Lakshman, among others.

"In 1992, I met 1948 Olympics gold medal winner Trilochan Singh Bawa at his Chandigadh residence and suddenly, he put a whole sack of photographs and articles from his store room in front of me. He asked me to take care of them and show to the young hockey players. Similarly, after failing to meet 1952 Olympics gold medallist Dharam Singh for almost a decade, I finally got an opportunity to meet him and he gave me an interview for a whole day," says Saroya.

"I met a young hockey player a few years ago and he told me to write it in a poem format. I have written the introduction of every player in poem format, and when I read it to some of the greats, they became very emotional. They have seen the times when we ruled the world of hockey, and it is very close to their hearts," said the writer.

The book is written in the Gurmukhi script, and is published by Unistar Books Ltd. in Chandigadh, and is priced at 250.

he May 2012 Visitor of the Month is from Paris, France, who sent a link to BharatiyaHockey.org on the video footage recorded during the French men's hockey team's visit to Delhi for Olympic Men's Hockey Qualifier:

The name of the video episode that was created is Cross(e) Over India, and it was shown on the Canal Plus television channel in France. The video is in French, and is available at the following link: http://www.canalplus.fr/c-sport/pid2708-interieur-sport.html?vid=614469.

Statistics by B. G. Joshi, with inputs from
Dil Bahra (England), Uli Meyer (Germany)

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

GERMAN MEN'S HOCKEY

There are multiple Germanys that took part in Olympic men's hockey - Unified Germany (1908-36), Federal Republic of Germany-FRG (1952-60, 68-88), German Democratic Republic-GDR (1964-68), and Unified Germany (1992 - present).

In the 1964 Olympics, GDR beat FRG in a 3-match playoff to represent Germany in the Olympics. In the 1968 Olympics, both FRG and GDR participated separately in the men's hockey competition. For the purposes of this article, GDR's record in the 1964 and 1968 Olympics is not included in the table below.

Germany was the nation that broke the stranglehold of India and Pakistan in Olympic men's hockey. These two subcontinental rivals had won all Olympic men's hockey golds for 4 decades (1928-68), before Germany won the Olympic men's hockey gold in the 1972 Olympics.

After India (8 Olympic golds), Germany has the second best record in Olympic men's hockey, with 3 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze medals.

The 3 times that Germany won the Olympic men's hockey gold (1972, 92, 2008), it went through the entire competition without losing a single match.

Year	Venue	P	W	L	D	GF	GA	Captain	Coach	Rank
1908	London	2	1	1	0	1	4	Alfons Brehm	Alfons Brehm	5
1928	Amsterdam	4	3	1	0	11	3	Theodor Haag	Georg Richter	3
1936	Berlin	4	3	1	0	14	9	Erich Zander	Detmar Wette	2
1952	Helsinki	5	4	1	0	20	4	Wilfried Grube	Kutti Weiss	5
1956	Melbourne	5	2	1	2	8	6	Hugo Budinger	Ernst Ludwig	3
1960	Rome	5	2	3	0	11	4	Eberhard Ferst	Ernst Ludwig	7
1968	Mexico City	9	5	3	1	16	8	Klaus Greinert	Hugo Budinger	4
1972	Munich	9	8	0	1	21	5	Carsten Keller	Werner Delmes	1
1976	Montreal	6	3	2	1	22	13	Fritz Schmidt	Klaus Kleiter	5
1984	Los Angeles	7	4	2	1	14	6	Michael Peter	Klaus Kleiter	2
1988	Seoul	7	5	1	1	16	7	Heiner Dopp	Klaus Kleiter	2
1992	Barcelona	7	6	0	1	20	6	Volker Fried	Paul Lissek	1
1996	Atlanta	7	3	3	1	13	9	Klaus Michler	Paul Lissek	4
2000	Sydney	7	4	1	2	17	8	Chris Mayerhöfer	Paul Lissek	5
2004	Athens	7	4	1	2	21	12	Florian Kunz	Bernhardt Peter	3
2008	Beijing	7	4	0	3	14	7	Timo Wess	Markus Weise	1
TOTAL		98	61	21	16	239	111			3G, 3S, 3B

GERMAN WOMEN'S HOCKEY

Markus Weise has the unique record of coaching both men's and women's Germany hockey teams to Olympic gold in two successive Olympics - he coached the German women's team to gold in the 2004 Olympics, and then coached the German men's team to gold in the 2008 Olympics.

Year	Venue	P	W	L	D	GF	GA	Captain	Coach	Rank
1984	Los Angeles	5	2	1	2	9	9	Susi Schmid	Wolfgang Strodter	2
1988	Seoul	5	3	2	0	9	9	Dagmar Bremer	Wolfgang Strodter	5
1992	Barcelona	5	3	1	1	10	5	Susanne Wollschläger	Rudiger Hanel	2
1996	Atlanta	7	2	4	1	10	11	Franziska Hentschel	Berthold Routh	6
2000	Sydney	6	3	1	2	11	8	Katrin Kauschke	Berthold Routh	5
2004	Athens	6	3	2	1	8	11	Marion Rodewald	Markus Weise	1
2008	Beijing	7	4	3	0	15	14	Marion Rodewald	Michael Behrmann	4
TOTAL		41	20	14	7	72	67			1G, 2S