Sat 5 Jul, 2008
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Hockey may get the axe  x3
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July 7, 2005
The Statesman, India
> Page Views 1589
Field hockey’s status as an Olympic sport is under serious threat as the International Olympic Committee meets tomorrow in Singapore to decide whether any of its 28 sporting disciplines should be axed from the 2012 London Olympics.
While the axe can fall on taekwondo, modern pentathlon, baseball and softball, going by current indications, field hockey is also on the endangered list. It is not assured of universal support.
Golf, karate, squash, seven-a-side rugby and roller sports have been shortlisted as the possible replacements. About 115 IOC members will cast their secret ballots tomorrow, and a sport needs the support of at least 50 per cent of the members, or a simple majority, to survive.
Eight time champions India will lobby hard to prevent the national sport, notwithstanding its pathetic state and shoddy administration at home, from being stroked out of the Olympics. So will Pakistan, who have three Olympic titles in their kitty. The International Hockey Federation will also leave no stone unturned to keep its discipline from being penalty cornered. All in all, hockey, introduced in Olympics in 1908, which gives fair importance to both men’s and women’s disciplines, is assured of only 12-15 votes out of the 60-odd needed to keep it afloat.
The assured votes would come from India, Pakistan, besides other Olympic champions like Australia, New Zealand, Holland, Germany and Britain. Malaysia, South Korea, Spain and Argentina are also expected to support hockey’s cause.
From the African continent, the votes of South Africa and Kenya can be hopefully counted upon. Newly emerging hockey power houses like China, Japan, Singapore, Italy, France, Poland, Belgium, United States, Russia, Canada, Ireland, and Chile are other potential supporters. A couple of Gulf states like Oman, UAE and Bangladesh also can really to the cause.
The FIH has worked hard over the last few years, to get its game globalised and the new converts should chip in to build up the safety bank. But will this be enough?
India and Pakistan would woo their political friends, to save the game of Hockey from being pushed out of the Olympics after completing a century at Beijing.
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Comments on this article
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Al Mattei
07-07-2005 10:36 pm
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Recount!
There is a lot more support for field hockey than the 12 to 15 mentioned in the article. I'd think there would be much, much more support from emerging IOC members like Bermuda, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Nigeria, and Vietnam.
But I guess it depends on who actually casts the votes for and against: bean-counters? NGB officers? athletes?
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COOL
07-08-2005 10:24 am
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SENSE PREVAILED
Hockey's finally in. Obviously the requisite mandate was obtained to maintain hockey as an Olympic event.
But what really gets me is that hockey has come this apathetic state. It's preposterous even to think that hockey's inclusion as an olympic event is questioned considering it's an ancient sport soem thousands of years older than squash, golf and roller sport!
(I've got nothing against squash, golf & roller sport, infact I play squash and golf; but was just making a comaprison)
Evidently, it is not a question of popularity, because the sheer numbers of people who enjoy hockey largely surpasses the number who enjoy the three above named sports.
It's a question of money. Hockey has to generate self-sustaining revenue and reassess it's global image. Recently, an ardent (if somewhat ignorant) sportsman told me that he's seen a hockey game in England where the players were more interested in maiming each other then playing the game! he called the sport "barbaric". Obviously, he not seen rugby or buzkeshi!
The point being that FIH can easily promote the sport in the regular hockey playing nations, but what about the U.S. and Ukraine and Burkano Faso and Gabon etc. (just to name a few).
All of know that hockey has as much spectator appeal as any other sport.
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Sutar
07-08-2005 9:52 pm
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Doesn't matter I think
Okay, India has 8 and Pak has 3, Holland 3 (?) gold medals. Yeah, it's thousands of years old and has huge following and tradition in some countries. But everyone thinks the same of the game they play, and polling to strike out games from the olympics is only reasonable, the sheer logistics of holding the olympics is phenomenal, and many more games are finding worldwide popularity nowadays, the pressure is obvious.
Though I love hockey than any other game, I think, to make the game more competitive, there should be JUST ONE BIG THING, enough to make fans lose their sleep for a month. Olympics has too many other events to distract people. Every year, there is CT or one major international event. Popularity of the game might be suffering from TOO many international events.
In soccer, no one cares about olympics, there is JUST one thing to DIE FOR.
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