While world hockey evolves, the Indian game continues to remain stuck in the past

What’s the story?

As has been the case for three years now, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) has introduced a faster format to world hockey in order to make the game more enjoyable and easy to watch. Gone are the days when hockey was played in the traditional 70-minute format with two 35-minute halves, and in are the four quarter 15-minute intervals to fasten the pace of the game and engage its audience unlike ever before.

The experiment may have succeeded to an extent, but it appears as though India hasn’t developed with the times as several domestic tournaments continue to follow the old format and are pretty much clueless regarding the new rules.

"Hockey India is yet to issue a directive on the rules for domestic tournaments. We have changed the format for the nationals, but it is yet to be implemented in other domestic tournaments," HI's technical committee member Claudius de Sales told Times of India in an interview.

In case you didn’t know…

The FIH made the switch to a shorter format following the need to adapt to a changing audience and evolving times. The ten lesser minutes have definitely made the game faster and more enjoyable so it can be argued that the right choice was made.

However, India is well behind the times as major tournaments continue to use the old rule book regarding time and follow the traditional format.

The heart of the matter

The fear is that with the old format being played domestically, players will find it difficult to adapt to the new format on the International stage and will subsequently struggle to keep up with the pace of the changing game. 

It is crystal clear that changes need to be implemented at the domestic level in order to keep up with the International setup and with hockey’s national team demanding the utmost fitness in the international game, upcoming domestic players will struggle to find a place in the team no matter how talented they are.

What’s next?

According to de Sales, change is expected soon as they believe in keeping Indian athletes at par with the best in the world but it is unclear as to when Hockey India will be able to make the new format a successful regular in the domestic scene.

Author’s take

It is quite baffling that three years down the line, implementation of new rules has not been done adequately. It sadly underlines the problems with the sport in the country and why it struggles to keep up with cricket as the most popular sport in India.

Related: Hockey India offers no comment on India's reported pull out of Hockey Pro League