Indian Football vs Indian Hockey

Twice I had to dump the idea of going to the refurbished National Stadium to watch a World Cup. I was a tad disappointed. Not because I couldn't watch a single World Cup game at home but Indian team's early ouster was highly discouraging. I wanted to watch Jose Brasa-trained Indian team. I wanted to follow another national team coached by a foreigner. Post World Cup, the media has done lot of incisive and indepth reasoning behind Indian team's failure in the World Cup. But apart from the technical aspect, none of the writers wrote about the ground realities.

Look at Australia. Just a couple of years back we shown the door to Aussie Ric Charlesworth. Back at the helm as Australia's chief coach, this man has produced some outstanding result. Here we made a mistake. We should have allowed the expert (Ric) to do his duty as Indian hockey's chief advisor. He would have done a decent job, I am sure. Here the Indian hockey administrators made a huge mistake.

Lot of people ask me the difference between Indian hockey and Indian football. Well, I tell them that Indian football has a structure in place unlike hockey. Soccer is played in schools, colleges and universities. In the gullies, in parks. There are so many national age-group football events organised by AIFF or even by state associations and academies. Many would still argue that in hockey you need astro-turfs while it is easy to kick a football on any pitch. But then given the presence of quite a number of astro-turfs, how many national events have been organised by our hockey federation. I remember, I saw a tattered astro-turf the last time I had visited SAI Centre in Calcutta.

Soccer has flourished in India because there is a definite plan. But above all, every affiliated unit is answerable to FIFA who has a strict guideline pertaining to soccer promotion. It doesn't happen with FIH. In India, we have bungled everything. From resources to grassroot programmes and even our national championships. Besides, the faction war within the hockey administration and a myopic vision were enough to strangle India's national sport.

Now contrast this with football. Though Indian football team hasn't played in a single World Cup (I'm not going into the comparison with hockey and even with cricket World Cups because the qualification process in football is quite tough) even then I would say the game has got a well set-up plan. I am not sure if Brasa would be continued after Indian team's eighth position finish in World Cup. But if the Spaniard is asked to go, then Indian hockey would again go down the drain. Look at Indian football. We have reposed faith on Bob Houghton ever since he has joined in 2006. That's quite a good idea if you consider the long-term plan. The U-16 and U-19 teams are groomed by yet another revered coach Colin Toal. Houghton has been able to create a supply line which I guess augurs well for the future senior teams.