Mr. Gill has done a coup of sorts for Hockey in India and may be in the whole world by initiating the PHL format of Hockey. Mr. Gill!U r on the right track , may be without ur knowledge u have started a K.P.S for Hockey, i.e., donot laugh, K(erry) P(acker) Series needed to give the boost on the lines the original KP did for cricket way back in 70s to bring fun, colour, crowd and money into it. Iam sure this is a good beginning we have made for the world Hockey, but to bring Hockey into mainstream of fan following in India & Pakistan what we perhaps need to know that we have to recreate the magic and the wizardry we were known for. That is sub-continental superiority of pure human skill over physical bullism of the western style thorugh artficial turfs and mechanical means have to be brought back by way of creating conditions where the power playing nations would be put into submission and sujugation to create crowd and sponsors' interest which r of paramount importance. To do that only a few modification in the strategy needs to be adopted in the KP (PHL )kind of Series format in the sense that astro turf has to give way to green natural grass, Hockey need to be denationalised from its National game status ( we all know the fate of most of the national assets and properties like national song, national animal, national monuments national flag, etc. all in near oblivion). This KPSeries has the potential to bring the pride, people and paise to create Sachins in Dillips or Gagans. Kudos to the PHL format and winners, the Orissa steelers for their great skill and tenacity. So it is back to basics. sukalp, hyd
I becomes very difficult for everybody when somebody at the highest level doesnt accept his mistakes gracefully and infact show more egoism. It defeats the whole purpose. Why cant we start multi-fold approach - 1) Bring in some more money to the federation/board from sponsors, NRIs, annual sports fund etc and start investing in creating camps/federation for small kids and also come up wih more astro turfs in the country (not in the bigger cities but smaller cities as well where likeness for the game still exists). 2) Create long term plans for junior hockey 3) Invest in foreign coach which may bring some novelty to the mindset and approach that all of us are used to it. 4) Remind players that they are not above game. We witness so many unsporting behaviours on the naional hockey scene that now even hockey umpires are not willing to operate in the local games. Be strict with players even if they belong to a particular region/state. 5) Finally, bring more transparency. Let other also participate in the planning (e.f. former hockey greats etc)
