Even as the crowds surge into Delhi's Feroze Shah Kotla stadium for the fourth Test between India and South Africa in anticipation of a result, and the deep-pocketed promoters of the Indian Super League assiduously market the spurious glamour of a sub-standard football competition, a genuinely world class tournament is being played in a relatively remote corner of the country with the minimum of publicity. This is the Hero World Hockey League Finals, which is being hosted in the sleepy eastern city of Raipur, capital of Chhattisgarh. This is probably a bigger deal than any of the sports properties in action in India right now, including the entertaining if gimmicky International Tennis Premier League (IPTL). But it has received muted coverage in the media - news that sixth-ranked India had defeated fourth-ranked Great Britain to reach the semi-finals did not even make it to the first page of any sports section in the mainline newspapers.
The Hero World Hockey League is held over two years and serves as a qualifier for the Hockey World Cup and the Olympic Games to be held in Rio de Janeiro next year. The Finals features the top six teams in world hockey and showcases some of the most exciting emerging talents, Indian and international. Thus, spectators get to watch best-in-class standards of play, and it says much for the level of interest that the stadiums are almost packed even when India is not playing. The crowd also displays knowledge and understanding that are now a rare commodity at the cricket grounds where sporting action is swamped by off-field tamashas.
The game isn't hugely modified as it is for the Indian Premier League or the IPTL. And unlike ISL, which relies mainly on aged international stars of yesteryear, many of the players here are stars whose talents will be on display in the next edition of the under- promoted Hockey India League in 2016. Like cricket, hockey has already demonstrated an understated but potent transformational power. The rising sums that went for young Indian players in the September auctions for Hockey India League are a case in point. Emerging stars like striker Akashdeep Singh, for instance, was bought by Uttar Pradesh Wizards for $84,000 (over Rs 55 lakh at the current exchange rate). Overall, bids for 15 Indian players crossed $50,000 (about Rs 33 lakh) in 2014. These may not look like large sums beside the money sloshing around in the IPL but the steadily rising sums represent an opportunity for young sportspeople in small-town India to derive a viable living from their talents, just as the Indian Premier League has done for hundreds of young cricket players.
In addition, look to Raipur, Bhubaneswar - which hosted the Champions Trophy last December - and Ranchi. All these cities now boast world class astro-turf stadiums with spectator facilities that outdo the National Stadium in Delhi. Recently built, these stadiums have been earmarked to host several important international tournaments in the hockey calendar (including the 2018 World Cup, which India will host for the third time). The spin-offs are also evident in the hospitality business. To host so many teams with attendant coaches, assistants, trainers, kit-men and so on, hotel groups like the Taj and Hyatt now have properties here - a development that creates genuine job opportunities otherwise scarce in cities that were built around mining and minerals.
The Hero group has done sterling service in almost single-handedly bankrolling India's return as a hockey destination. The Indian team, too, has gained; it has jumped up two places in the world rankings - four places ahead of the next highest-rank Asian team, Pakistan. For these reasons alone, hockey deserves more attention and resources from the corporate world.
