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N Chandrasekhar has been working with young hockey players of Mumbai since the 1980s. He has coached young boys who have gone on to play at the national and international levels. He has also mentored many whose enthusiasm for the game petered out in course of time, perhaps because they lost interest or because they were just not good enough. Chandra Sir, as he is popularly known, has seen enough of hockey to notice the dwindling interest in the sport these days.
M K Kaushik, former coach of the Indian women's hockey team, shares Chandrasekhar's disappointment at the decline in youngsters' enthusiasm for the sport and is frankly "not surprised", but is still saddened to see the state of the national sport in schools and colleges.
In Bangalore, former Olympian Jude Felix started his hockey academy for under-privileged children in 2009, and has a nuanced observation: the enthusiasm of his wards, he says, is difficult to find in children coming from affluent backgrounds.
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Contrary to popular perceptions that hockey is a "cheap" game, one needs funds to play it - at least if the aim is to achieve a professional level. A good pair of hockey shoes costs at least Rs 5,000. A hockey stick of a certain standard costs Rs 2,500-5,000. A goalkeeper's kit can set one back by Rs 15,000. These deter many parents from sending their children for hockey training. "Why will parents spend money on something when they don't see the returns?" asks Chandrasekhar.
There is just a glint of hope with some money coming into the sport, with the India Hockey League being a showcase commercial event. Chandrasekhar has been attached to a school in Andheri, Mumbai, for 26 years now. "Till 2011, it was terrible. Very few children came, but in the last one year things have started to look up," he says. His idea was to introduce prize money for hockey tournaments at all levels - be it U-14, U-16 or U-12. "It's a small incentive but it encourages them," he says.
Felix wanted hockey to be a part of a child's overall development. "I tried coaching in Bangalore but it was really difficult to sustain the interest of both parents and children," he says. He then thought of starting an academy for children who, if not for the love of the sport or money, would start playing to find a focus in life. "We believe in holistic development of children. Through the game of hockey, we focus on preparing children to face challenges and build life-skills," he says. Felix tied up with St Mary's Orphanage in Bangalore and has 95 youngsters, aged 9-20, training with him. "Hockey lacks the glamour for children of elite families to sweat it out on the field. There are no returns," he explains.
Kaushik used to attend a lot of inter-school tournaments in the early 2000s, but has stopped doing so. "Earlier schools in Delhi like Modern and Delhi Public School used to have good teams and exciting players. Now they don't have any," he says glumly. Guru Harkishan Public School, in central Delhi, is one school that still has a very active hockey programme. Kumkum Chaddha, the physical education teacher at the school, says that interest levels are low but it can be revived. "You need to motivate them, offer them encouragement and most importantly, they should be shown what they will get out of the sport," she says. Gone are the days when love of hockey used to draw kids to the curved stick. "You need to cultivate the interest," adds Chaddha. She makes it a point to enter her team in all school tournaments. "The competitive streak has to be kept alive or the children get bored very easily," she says.
St Stanislaus in Bandra, a school with a rich tradition of hockey, too is struggling as it only has a grass pitch, and players struggle to cope with games played on astro turf. "There's only one astro-turf field in the city at Churchgate, and it's not possible for us to send children there," says Gavin D'Souza, the school's physical education teacher.
Most coaches feel that installing more astro-turf pitches in stadiums and allowing young players to learn their ropes there would yield some results. Sabu Varkey, a former Indian hockey player, says that parents these days think long-term. "When they see that a child playing on grass will not be able to make it professionally, they will encourage the child to devote his time and energy to other sports," he observes.
Schools, on their part, believe that they encourage children to take up all kinds of sport. "We have all the equipment and we never say don't play hockey or play only cricket," says a physical education teacher at a South Delhi school. "But we can't force children either to take up one particular sport. It's a child's choice," he adds. Children, of course, as Chandrasekhar believes, are influenced by the popularity of a sport. "They want to be seen on TV - when they see their fellow classmates being covered by TV networks while playing cricket, it's natural they will get influenced," says Chandrasekhar.
Hockey is still popular in smaller towns like Lucknow, Bhopal and Ranchi as these places have a tradition of hockey that still continues. Viren Rasquinha, former national team captain, says that the standard of hockey in the bigger cities has fallen sharply in the last decade. "The primary reason is lack of tournaments," he says. "School hockey is weak, while the sport is non-existent at college and university levels. Add to that the lack of incentives and you will find the answer why hockey isn't being played by children any longer."
These bode ill for Indian hockey's future. The talent pool seems now to be moving to smaller towns - which, given the poorer facilities available there compared to those in cities, does not paint a bright picture of the coming years for hockey.
