n Dhyan Chand's 108th birth anniversary, a comic book on the hockey legend was released by publishers Amar Chitra Katha. The 64-page graphic biography was launched by Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Shashi Tharoor, at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium in Delhi.

Said Tharoor on the occasion, "There could be no better day to celebrate India's National Sports Day, observed on the birthday of Dhyan Chand. He gave his heart and soul for the country. His legacy goes beyond hockey. The fact that he won three gold medals for India shows that he was a true team man. What a patriot he was. Dhyan Chand is to hockey what Pele is to football and Muhammad Ali is to boxing. I have read that Don Bradman met Dhyan Chand in 1935, and the Australian told Dhyan Chand that he was the best player he has seen."

It is the first time in Amar Chitra Katha's 46-year-history that a sportsperson has been featured in the publication.

Said Reena Puri, editor of Amar Chitra Katha, "Dhyan Chand is a huge figure in the world of sports. He is the perfect role model and the perfect icon for young people. He was the first choice when we thought of doing graphic novels on sports personalities. We were looking for a person who made his sporting talent mean something to the entire country, and Dhyan Chand did that. His story has heroism, drama and talent. Dhyan Chand was an epitome of excellence in his field. We wanted people to learn how to excel despite facing hardships in life. In a world where our young people see corruption and irresponsible action all around, the story of Dhyan Chand will bring courage, hope and a belief that hard work and honesty can reap great rewards."

Continued Reena, "It was difficult to find reference material on Dhyan Chand. We relied on his autobiography (Goal) to get information on him. We even contacted Laussane (IOC headquarters) to get more material about those days, like the colours of the jerseys that the Indian team wore in the 1928, 1932 and 1936 Olympics. But even the IOC had only black and white photos of that era. We then looked at the current Team India colours and adapted them for the players in the book"

Mumbai-based Mohan, Chief Operating Officer, ACK Media, said, "This is the first in our series on sports biographies. We have been looking to do stories which talk about people who have shaped modern India in various disciplines, including sports, and we felt that Dhyan Chand is a suitable person to start with."

The idea to come out with a graphic book on Dhyan Chand was initiated by the publisher around 18 months back. The script of the book has been written by Luis Fernandes, who read Dhyan Chand's autobiography, saw video clippings on the 1936 Berlin Olympics, spoke to people who had played with him, and researched extensively on the subject while writing the script.

Each copy of the Amar Chitra Katha's Dhyan Chand special edition will cost 90. The book is available for purchase online on the Amar Chitra Katha site.

    

Article by Urvi Malvani, courtesy Business Standard

ased on advertising revenues and viewership numbers, sports like badminton and hockey are coming of age in India. The table below shows how the badminton league (IBL) and the hockey league (HIL) compare to the cricket league (IPL edition 6).

Category	Metric	IBL	HIL	IPL6
Television	Television Reach	2.17 crore	4.14 crore	19 crore
	Broadcasting Network	ESPN Star Sports	ESPN Star Sports	SET Max, Sony Six
	Average Viewers/Day	1.2 million	1.59 million	3.5 million
	Television Rating	1.0
	Telecast In		146 countries
Finances	Number of Advertisers	10	6
	On-Ground Sponsors	1	4
	Advertisement Revenue	75-90 crore	60-70 crore	850-875 crore
Social Media	Facebook Likes	110,000	544,000
	YouTube Subscribers	5,800	34,400

Mona Jain, CEO of VivaKi Exchange, the agency responsible for marketing and communication of the Indian Badminton League, says: "It has been a very encouraging start for IBL. The response from the audiences and advertisers has been very good. The television rating for the tournament, above 1.0, says it all."

"The first year is always low in terms of revenues, as it is the time franchises and all parties involved are pumping in money, with no immediate returns. Even IPL picked up only in the second year. IBL and HIL may not have made lot of money in their inaugural year but, going by the response, one can say these properties will only become richer and more popular next year," says a media planner, asking not to be named.

Says another media planner, "The IBL, despite its lower reach than that of the HIL, earned higher advertisement revenues. This is because Badminton viewership is skewed slightly more towards the Socio Economic Classification - A (SEC A) audience. So, the spend on the IBL property by brands could have been higher. Also, hockey is more male-skewed and has less of a pan-Indian appeal when compared to badminton."

The IBL (18 days duration) earned its revenue in one third the duration of the IPL (54 days), while the HIL (26 days) earned its revenue in less than half the duration of the IPL.

Also, ESPN Star Sports, the host broadcaster for both the IBL and HIL, should be given due credit, feel media observers. The events got a good showcase because of the broadcaster's reach and marketing. In the case of IBL, VivaKi Exchange came up with an outdoor campaign featuring top-notch badminton players. This grabbed a lot of eyeballs.

Another factor that contributed to the relative success of the IBL and HIL is cricket fatigue of the Indian viewers, due to over-exposure to the sport, thrust upon the BCCI by broadcasting partners.

ESPN India COO Vijay Rajput says: "India has primarily been a single-sport country. But at STAR Sports, we believe Indian fans would love to follow other sports as well, if the product is well packaged and presented. Our main aim is to broadbase the viewership of sports in the country. We see huge potential for a product like IBL, much like we saw value in the Hockey India League."

he 9th Men's Asia Cup was held at the Sultan Azlan Shah Stadium in Ipoh, Malaysia, from August 24 - September 1, 2013. The winner of the Asia Cup would automatically qualify for the 2014 Men's World Cup. The tournament was telecast live on ESPN Star Sports in India.

A total of 8 teams participated in the tournament, and were divided into 2 pools as below.

• Pool A: Pakistan, Malaysia, Japan, Chinese-Taipei
• Pool B: South Korea, India, Bangladesh, Oman

China did not participate in the tournament, possibly because of a clash with China's National Games, which were held from 31st August to 12th September, 2013.

India went into the Asia Cup without the services of four first-team forwards - S. V. Sunil, Danish Mujtaba, Gurvinder Singh Chandi and Akashdeep Singh - all of whom were out due to injuries suffered in the lead up to the tournament.

India finished 2nd in the Asia Cup, with the following match results:

Stage	Date	Result	Goal Scorers - India
Pool	Aug 24	India 8 - Oman 0	Mandeep Singh (4, 40, 44 min) Ramandeep Singh (17 min) V. R. Raghunath (28 min) Rupinder Pal Singh (34 min) Malak Singh (47 min) S. K. Uthappa (69 min)
	Aug 26	India 2 - South Korea 0	V. R. Raghunath (6 min), PC Mandeep Singh (65 min)
	Aug 28	India 9 - Bangladesh 1	Rupinder Pal Singh (4m-PC, 19m-PC, 27m-PS, 61m-PC) Nikin Thimmaiah (25 min) V. R. Raghunath (29, 52, 59 min), all PCs Malak Singh (47 min)
Semi-finals	Aug 30	India 2 - Malaysia 0	V. R. Raghunath (8 min), PC Mandeep Singh (60 min)
FINAL	Sep 1	South Korea 4 - India 3	Rupinder Pal Singh (48 min), PC Nikkin Thimmaiah (57 min) Mandeep Singh (64 min)

The final standings in the 9th Asia Cup were as follows: 1 - South Korea, 2 - India, 3 - Pakistan, 4 - Malaysia, 5 - Japan, 6 - Oman, 7 - Bangladesh, 8 - Chinese Taipei

The following were the individual and team awards in the 9th Asia Cup:

• Goalkeeper of the Tournament: P. R. Sreejesh (India)
• Top Goal Scorer of the Tournament: Jang Jong-hyun (South Korea), 8 goals
• Player of the Tournament: V. R. Raghunath (India)
• Fairplay Trophy: Japan

Hockey India announced cash awards of 1 lakh each to V. R. Raghunath and P. R. Sreejesh for the above individual awards. In addition, forward Ramandeep Singh was also awarded 1 lakh for scoring a goal on his international debut against Oman.

India now has to wait till November - for Australia or New Zealand to win the Oceania Cup - to confirm their participation in the 2014 Men's World Cup.

India has made the final of the Men's Asia Cup 7 times, but has lost in the final 5 out of those 7 times. South Korea has twice the number of Asia Cup victories (4) than India (2). In head-to-head matches between the two countries, South Korea has won more matches (31) than India (27). India needs to consistently win at the Asian level, before dreaming of bigger achievements on the world stage.

The decline and fall of Pakistan hockey was mourned by hockey fans. 4-time World Cup winners Pakistan had finished last in the 2010 World Cup, and now have not qualified for the 2014 World Cup.

The Indian team was as follows:

Goalkeepers: PR Sreejesh (vice-captain), P. T. Rao

Defenders: V. R. Raghunath, Rupinder Pal Singh, Amit Rohidas, Kothajeet Singh, Birendra Lakra, Gurmail Singh

Midfielders: Sardar Singh (captain), Manpreet Singh, Chinglensana Singh, Dharamveer Singh, Sannuvanda K. Uthappa

Forwards: Ramandeep Singh, Nithin Thimmaiah, Mandeep Singh, Malak Singh, Nikkin Thimmaiah

Officials: Interim Chief Coach: Roelant Oltmans, Assistant Coach: M. K. Kaushik, Goalkeeping Coach: Dave Staniforth, Scientific Advisor: Jason Konrath

Photograph by S. Subramaniam of The Hindu

he expenses of playing hockey at the international level are as follows:

• Goalkeeping Kit: 80,000
• Tournament-quality Hockey Stick: 20,000
• Artificial Turf Shoes: 10,000 (with new shoes every 2 months)
• Shin Pad: 8,000

Women hockey players in India suffer from two handicaps:

Playing a Male-Dominated Sport: For Indian male hockey players, a host of public sector undertakings like petroleum companies (e.g., Bharat Petroleum), airlines (e.g., Air India), banks (e.g., Punjab & Sindh Bank), police (e.g., Punjab Police), Army and Railways, among others, provide employment to players based on their hockey talent. For female hockey players, Railways is the only public sector undertaking that will employ them.

Playing a Non-Cricket Sport: The Indian men's team that won the u-19 Cricket World Cup were awarded 20 lakhs each for winning the title. As Rani Rampal put it in perspective: "The amount the men's u-19 cricket team got for winning one tournament, most women hockey players will not get in their entire life."

Most of the Indian women hockey players come from economically weaker sections of the society, where ever three meals a day can sometimes be a struggle. Seven players of India's bronze medal winning Jr. World Cup women's team were suffering from an iron deficiency disorder, that can lead to tiredness and lethargy on the field, as stated by former national coach Michael Nobbs.

Many of these women hockey players face hardships that other sportspersons may not have experienced. They play with borrowed shoes and borrowed sticks from their seniors, and in most cases, such equipment is either torn or worn.

Rani Rampal's father is a cart-puller and her elder brother is a carpenter. Manjeet Kaur's father and goalkeeper Bigan Soy's fathers are farmers. Navneet Kaur's father is an air conditioner mechanic. Vandana Katariya's father is a technician.

Rani Rampal has a job of a junior clerk in the Railways. Her teammates Manjeet Kaur, Navneet and Navtoj don't have the secure cushion of a job.

Navneet Kaur, the girl who scored the winning goal in the bronze medal penalty shootout against England, says: "I'm without a job, and I badly want to support my family. I know what my father has done for me to get me to this level and I want to return the favour to my family. Hockey has done a lot for me, but if things carry on like this I might have quit hockey and start looking at employment avenues."

Article by Rutvick Mehta, courtesy DNA India

ore than a year after being awarded the Svarna Kamal for Best Non-Feature Film at the 2012 National Film Awards, And We play On, a documentary on former hockey Olympian Vivek Singh who succumbed to cancer in 2005, has no takers for a theatrical release.

The documentary - written, directed and produced by Pramod Pursvane - talks about Vivek's battle with cancer that eventually took his life at the age of 37. It also focusses on his family, which decided to set-up a hockey academy for young players in Varanasi, Vivek's hometown. Called the Vivek Academy, it now has over 100 boys and girls training under Vivek's father Gaurishankar, with no support from the government.

Shot with a budget of 14 lakh, Pursvane has only earned 3 lakh from the film, which was the prize money of the National Award. Not a paisa besides that.

Says Pursvane, "It takes a Farhan Akhtar to sell Milkha Singh; people remember Bhagat Singh as Ajay Devgn, not the man himself. This documentary was a very touching story, but in the end, it was about hockey - no one will watch it."

Says Vivek's younger brother Rahul Singh, "We took the film to some national and international festivals and almost everyone who saw it was in tears. We have since gone to various corporates like Reliance, Universal and so on, but none were interested. Yuvraj Singh recovered from cancer. A documentary was made on him, and all corporates wanted to buy it. The difference in these two cases is the sport involved. You can sell anything in India if it's related to cricket, but if the same story involves a hockey player, no one bothers to hear."

And yet while money was important, the main purpose of this documentary was to tell Vivek's story to as many youngsters as possible. So Rahul decided to send DVDs to various schools and colleges across Mumbai, but they too showed little interest.

Youngsters who have seen the documentary say it is nothing short of inspirational. "There is a scene in which Vivek's mother has to literally run with him while he is playing to feed him when he was a kid. I want to be as dedicated to the game as that," says 21-year-old Amol Pal, a product of the Vivek Academy who now plays for Mumbai Customs.

Loss of money notwithstanding, Pursvane is now working on a film on Ramakant Achrekar, Sachin Tendulkar's coach. "I plan to club Vivek's documentary with this, so that it is seen by more people. I'm sure I will earn money from the cricket documentary," he says.

Photograph courtesy Asahi Shimbun

he Photograph of the Month for September 2013 is from the 1964 Olympic hockey competition in Tokyo.

The 1964 Tokyo Olympics were the first Olympics to be held on Asian soil. This was the third consecutive clash between India and Pakistan in the Olympic hockey final.

India beat Pakistan 1-0 in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Pakistan beat India 1-0 in the 1960 Rome Olympics. India went on to beat Pakistan 1-0 in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics to win its 7th Olympic hockey gold.

IHF President Ashwini Kumar did the running commentary for Akashvani in the final at Tokyo. When Mohinder Lal converted the penalty stroke to give India the match winner, a hysterical Ashwini Kumar cried himself hoarse. It was an instant in which Akashvani and Ashwini Kumar were made for each other, a sound-byte that would become frozen in time.

Shankar Lakshman, one of India's best ever goalkeepers, was declared the Man of the Final.  .

Photograph of Rani Rampal by S. Subramaniam of The Hindu

he Indian women team's bronze medal winning performance in last month's Junior Women's World Cup has resulted in a financial bonanza for the players, as can be seen from the table below.

Organisation	Amount	Recipient
Hariyana Government	10 lakh	Rani Rampal, for winning Player of the Tournament
	5 lakh	Each of the 6 Hariyana players in Jr. World Cup team
		(Rani Rampal, Navneet Kaur, Navjyot Kaur, Manjeet Kaur, Monika Malik, Arya Ritusha Kumari)
	5 lakh	Baldev Singh, for coaching the Hariyana women players
Jharkhand Government	5 lakh	Goalkeeper Bigan Soy, who is from Jharkhand
Odisha Government	1.25 lakh	Each of the 4 Odisha players in Jr. World Cup team
		(Namita Toppo, Lilima Minz, Anupa Barla, Deep Grace Ekka)
Karnataka Government	1 lakh	M. N. Ponnamma, who is from Karnataka
Hockey India	1 lakh	Each Member of Indian Women's Team
	1 lakh	Rani Rampal, for winning Player of the Tournament
	1 lakh	Chief Coach of Indian Women's Team
	50,000	Each Member of the Support Staff
Hockey Jharkhand	51,000	Goalkeeper Bigan Soy
Hockey Hariyana	50,000	Each of the 6 Hariyana players in Jr. World Cup team
		(Rani Rampal, Navneet Kaur, Navjyot Kaur, Manjeet Kaur, Monika Malik, Arya Ritusha Kumari)
Union Sports Ministry	50,000	Each Member of Indian Women's Team
	25,000	Each Member of the Coaching Staff

Of the six Hariyana girls, five are from the town of Shahbad, 65 km from Chandigadh, and one from Hissar. The 4 Odisha girls all hail from Sundergadh district.

nfostrada Sports, a full service sports and media company, was responsible for the broadcast production of the TriFinance EuroHockey Championships that was held from August 17-25, 2013, at Braxgata HC in Boom, Belgium.

Mediapro, a technical services supplier to the audio-visual sector, handled the distribution of the games' signals to the broadcast partners around the world.

Sports Exposure was responsible for advertising sales in the European market of the pitch-side LED boarding (a first in hockey), as well as video walls.

Media facilities included a High Definition Outside Broadcast (OB) Van, equipped with 12 cameras. The Video Umpire was also located in the OB van to handle video referrals. For the first time ever in hockey, open microphones in the stadium were used during video referrals, enabling spectators to listen in to the full video referral process.

The top 8 European women's and men's national teams contested 40 matches over 9 days for the European title. Germany won both the men's and women's titles.

he September 2013 Visitor of the Month is Jaydeep Mukherjee from Kolkata, who wrote the following to BharatiyaHockey.org.

The Tiger Paw Film Festival was held at Alliance Francaise in Delhi, from August 27-29, 2013. This is the first Sports Film Festival to be held in Asia.

Our documentary, 'Leslie Claudis - Story of a Hockey Legend' was nominated in the Short Documentary category. Leslie participated in the 1948 (London), 1952 (Helsinki), 1956 (Melbourne) and 1960 (Rome) Olympics, winning 3 Olympic gold and 1 Olympic silver medals. The 30 minute documentary traces Leslie's roots from Central India, his participation in the various Olympics, and his eventual settling down in Kolkata. Leslie Claudius died in Kolkata on 20th December, 2012.

To get more information about our documentary on Leslie Claudisu, please contact us at:

Piyaly Productions
48, Pratapaditya Place
Kolkata 700026
India
Email: piyaly@hotmail.com

Statistics by B. G. Joshi

he September 2013 edition of Fun with Numbers is on the 8th Women's Asia Cup, which is being held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from September 21-29, 2013.

South Korea has the best gender parity in Asia with respect to hockey. The South Korean men's team has won the maximum number of Asia Cup titles (4), while the South Korean women's team has won the maximum number of Asia Cup titles (3).

The last 4 editions of the Women's Asia Cup have been won by 4 different countries - South Korea, India, China, Japan - as shown in the table below:

Year	Venue	Total Teams	Winner	Captain
1985	Seoul	6	South Korea	Sang Hyun Chung
1989	Hong Kong	5	China	Yang Hongbing
1993	Hiroshima	7	South Korea	Lim Gae Sook
1999	Delhi	6	South Korea	Eun Young Lee
2004	Delhi	8	India	Suraj Lata Devi
2007	Hong Kong	9	Japan	Kato Akemi
2009	Bangkok	11	China	Ma Yi Bo

South Korea is the only country to have succcessfully defended the Women's Asia Cup title, winning consecutive tournaments in 1993 and 1999.