Pained by the steady decline of Indian hockey over the years, the legendary Balbir Singh Sr has drawn up a roadmap, which includes an innovative three-tier league, to help the country regain lost glory.
The iconic centre forward, who won gold medals at the 1948 (London), 1952 (Helsinki) and 1956 (Melbourne) Olympics, said it was imperative for India to quickly put a revival plan in place to raise the standard of hockey which is "very bad and disappointing" at the moment.
Balbir reckons that factional tension, lack of trained coaches at the grassroot level and absence of systematic national league were three primary concerns for Indian hockey at the moment.
"I have prepared a scheme of a national hockey league. We should hold it once a year and finish it within a month," Balbir Sr said during an interaction with PTI journalists today.
Elaborating on his well-structured plan, he said it was a three-tier league like most of the top soccer leagues across various countries.
"Instead of conducting national championship, we can have a national league with atleast 30 teams dividing them into three divisions as per their merit. It will be like rankings 1-10 in the top division followed by 11-20 and then 21-30. There should be promotion and relegation. It's not like Punjab playing Mizoram but well-matched teams pitted against each other."
Balbir Sr also recommended that good cash incentive should be given according to the performance of the teams.
"Cash awards should be there at every stage because players want money and their parents also need financial assistance. Cash awards should be given according to their standings, their rankings in the national ranking system", he said.
