'Root cause analysis(RCA)' is the technique used to locate the source of a problem in scientific terminology. Ever thought of Golf geting ahead of soccer on a world stage. I know , 'Naaaaaaaaaaaah' would be the first thought that will come to most of us. There is a genuine reason for it which would simply be that soccer gives us 90 mins of non stop excitement which golf can never match up to. It is pretty easy to prove this in just one line ..doesn't really need 'root cause analysis' eh. But if we have to find out why one important game is neglected in our country and what can be done to save it from further disgrace i see no harm in applying it. Lets apply RCA to the sport that is 'on paper' the most important game for us which is 'Hockey'.
What should the national game of India be ? I would say it should be Cricket. One may have never heard of changing the national game of a country but i think its time we did so not for anything else but to save our national game from further disgrace. I am not a big proponent of Cricket myself but the numbers make it the most important sport in the country . The two most gripping problems that hockey faces in our country are lack of sponsorship and lack of viewership. Lets look at different angles to this problem and the proposed solution.
Sports is entertainment and wherever there is entertainment what counts is the mass appeal it generates in terms of numbers , the amount money that has to be put behind its promotion and the bottomline being what kind of return on investment will it generate.Having said that, both in terms of money and viewership Cricket wins hands down. No sport can survive without viewership at the national and international levels the reason beng viewership is directly related to the amount of money that comes in for the sport. I may be sounding cliche in the last sentence but we cannot deny it.
Indian Hockey may have won 8 Olympic Gold medals while cricket is yet to be counted in the Olympics as a game. Indian Hockey dominated the world scene between 1928 - 1956 remaining unbeaten in the Olympics while Indian Cricket managed a world cup win somehow but never really managed to hold on to the number 1 position for more than a few months . Funny eh, so much talent , so much money in the game but still the stats are so poor in comparison. Wonder where all the money actually goes !! Talking about the 8 Olympic medals has the popularity gone up by 8 times in our country ? the answer to that is in our minds already.
For some wierd reason our psyche does not register Hockey as a game of importance or rather excitement which is why it lacks the basic ingredients that can fuel its popularity. On the other hand just think about Cricket along the same lines. Funny again because both games have 11 players a side, both use the ball of similar size and both have something to hit the ball with (but of a different shape). The major difference crops up when we think about the way the two games are played. In Cricket players of one side can use their hands to hold the ball while Hockey doesnt allow that at all . When it comes to handling the ball the fielding side is involved in aiming at the stumps . Does that make it more interesting....Oh i was so deep into fielding that i almost missed out on batting. Cricket seems to thrive on the big hitting involved in batting , the 4's and the 6's none of which is a part of hockey. Our hockey seems to have the same old two goal posts and players running around to put the ball the opponent's net. Doesnt the last sentence sound familiar, doesnt it sound like the game we all love....The Beautiful Game...Soccer.
As far as physical contact is concerned and the subsequent physical bouts it can generate both have considerable risks. While soccer tops among the two , but in Hockey you have a really hard ball which is always struck firmly enough to fracture anyone it hits directly and our Hockey players do not wear helmets apart from the keeper ofcourse. Which translates into the fact that our Hockey players are brave hearts. Compare these risk factors with Cricket. Our beloved batsman is protected with all kinds of gear from head to toe(reminds me of saurav ganguly :-D). All our fielders do no have to run most of the time. The select few in the direction the ball is hit and is thrown and their opposite counterparts on the field to avoid an overthrow. Pretty relaxed i would say by the standards of Hockey. I guess sledging was intentionally brought in by the ICC to spice up the game a bit otherwise the gentleman's game would be a bit too boring to watch (after all everything needs to be marketed :-) ).
Summing up everything, Hockey is more similar to the game which is the most popular game in the world, than Cricket. Hockey rules make sure that the risks and excitement are more than cricket , players run around more than in Cricket which adds to the intensity, but inspite of all this Hockey just doesn't generate enough attention amongst us today to remain labelled as the national game of the country !? Our RAC has just lead us to believe that the problem lies in the what we percieve as exciting and the way it
is presented to us comes into the picture here.
I hope some sponsor stumbles upon this write up of mine to find out the deep **** that Hockey is in . I think better marketing , better camera positioning which will lead to better viewer experience (because TV viewers are the main target today ) can still save the game . On the contrary if they think that 'we cannot experiment with money, we are a profit driven organisation and we can only put money where we are sure to reap benefits' then i think its time we renamed our national sport. A national sport is supposed to be one which is culturally related to that country . When Cricket is broadcasted they say Cricket is a religion in India. They never talk like that with regard to Hockey !! I cannot blame them because the ground reality is in their favour.
So spread the word countrymen, let Cricket be renamed as the National game. It will save our country a lot of shame when they show the Hockey players' plight regarding the kind of match fees they get. The governing body eats up whatever paltry sum that is generated out of the game and our needy and deserving players get slose to nothing.
Remember that spreading the word is a winning way to get things done. A word which was never meant to be in the dictionary can be found in a standard dictionalry these days simply because it has gained popularity worlwide. We have no conclusive evidence of Adam and Eve making out but half the world believes that we are from them . Havn't seen it but we still believe it :-). Thats how strong spreading the word can be .Then why not give Cricket the status that it deserves. Nobody controlled it .It just happened. After all our famous constitutional lines go well with Cricket - 'It is a game of the people , by the people and for the people' . All the more a reason why it should be at the No.1 spot on paper for us. Once this happens there will atleast be something that matches with the ground reality in our country :-).
It is a negetive approach but it is still a solution to save Hockey from further disgrace and salvage whatever respect is left of it and the players. Let it die in oblivion once it is delisted, atleast the players will not have to cope with the shame that comes with the neglect.
