What can WSH learn from EPL & other European leagues

The hockey lovers in India are really excited about WSH. According to many this is the right step in reviving Hockey in India which over years has taken a beating in front of other sports like Cricket, Tennis, Football and modern sports like F1. There was a time when the Hockey matches were passionately followed but now even India's biggest newspaper covers it under Other Sports while it covers NBA in the main page!!!!

With almost all decks cleared for WSH, and it happening this December, what are the steps that WSH can take to ensure that it does not got the PHL way. The answer to that question lies at the same place where the Indian leagues both IPL & WSH looked to when they designed themselves i.e. the EPL.


Now the question comes what can WSH learn from EPL and various other league. Lets look at what strength employs and how it can be used

1. English and used for it's advantage
The EPL takes huge advantage of the it being from England and uses this connection in the Anglophone world. Similarly WSH can use to its advantage the huge diaspora all around the world and ensure it goes global through them.

2. Aggression v  Technical v Tactical
All the global sporting league's rely on any one of the trait. You rely too much on one then it becomes a drag and mix them, you get success. However of all the 3 using Aggression the most helps to get the youngsters which becomes the backbone. This is true for EPL. Similarly in USA NFL is most popular of big 4 because it uses a lot of Aggression along with being Tactical and Technical too. Baseball which is too Technical with little bit Tactical is now amongst the laggard in big 4 US games. Similarly Bundesliga which has more Technical playing angle is also behind other Football league
Hockey is a highly Technical game. WSH should ensure that Aggression as well as Tactical stuff if put into it to make it complete fun for viewers

3. Matches on Weekend
IPL is played daily with 74 matches. It bored you. You will not want to watch every team play. Like I just want to KXIP and not KKR. EPL efficiently places on weekend with the biggies not clashing with each other. The players are released if required for international commitments. This ensures local viewers can enjoy their games at the right place, in the Stadium
WSH may not be able to do it initially but over time they should put in more matches but on Weekend only

4. League goes on but does not burden you
The beauty of EPL scheduling is that even though it has 380 matches in a season it does not burden you, why because you get to see your favorite team play 38 times. And with matches over the weekend over various months you have the excitement but not burdened by it

Somehow WSH has also to ensure that it does not over do it. Presently with 61 matches over 45 days seems a little dragged. Over time I hope they ensure that they balance the scheduling



5. Local support and tradition
The EPL and other European clubs have been formed on long traditions. WSH though cannot do that overnight but surely would like to be associated with the locals. The ways for this should be some visible local players, roping in local hockey clubs, linking themselves with the local traditions or roping the local stars of any field. This will help the WSH to form an unmovable base of support

6. Good junior Programs
This is one area where EPL lacks but surely other Europeans clubs specially Spanish, Italian and German clubs are very good. They have very good junior programs and which help them to produce future stars, bring in talent at very low cost, and through them garner local supports. Through sponsorship programs the young talent must be tapped

7. Timing of Broadcasts
The timings of Broadcast is very critical if WSH has really a dream of becoming "World" Series Hockey rather than staying in India. The EPL broadcast are set in a way that they are enjoyed in UK along with wide support network in Africa and Asia. As the matches are on Weekend, setting them towards evening or late night are taken very well by the fans. Similarly in the long term WSH should try to balance out the various time differences and reach primary Hockey markets of Asia, Oceania and Europe.

8. Global Players and brand names
This is a aspect that makes EPL attractive to so many nations. A star of a local country be it in Africa or America is signed by European league and then in return pulls in the viewership of the locals of that country for EPL. WSH has brought in some stars but should look for some bigger names of Netherlands, Germany, Australia or Spain. This will help it improve the quality of league, more interest locally and more interest globally

9. Global expertize of the commentary panel. 
Finally last but not the least, have you ever seen the level of commentators on ESPN be it cricket or EPL. This is why people love to watch ESPN. This really matters. A good match can be spoiled by a bad commentary. It is not stars that are required but the better, sensible and level headed commentators. WSH can bring in good commentators from other sports as well like Harsha Bhogle etc. This factor will really help projecting WSH in a big way.

PS:-This blog could not have written without the help of my friend Ambujesh Yadav an ardent athlete, a real sports and Man U fan.

Is it time for Hockey?

3 Million $ prize, 178 Players, 40 foreign players from around 10 countries, a club structure. What does it sound like? Football, wait I am talking about India, then it must be Cricket. No its not Football neither it is cricket, it is the national game of India, one in which it has won a record 8 Olympic Gold Medals, yes it is Hockey.

The WSH-World Series Hockey after a long silence after its initial announcement in December last year is set to played in Dec and Jan this year. The Nimbus had a launch program in Mumbai recently and where it also declared to have reached an understanding with FIH and the participating players would be safe as opposed to threat of bans earlier. The sport minister is also trying hard to have an HI-IHF merger and if it goes through then things will start to go in hockey’s favor after a long time.

The WSH is set to have 8 Franchise based on IPL model. 6 teams location have been declared as metros-Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai and the 6^th one is the Hockey powerhouse of India- Punjab (With Chandigarh, Jullundur & Amritsar as 3 locations). The rest 2 locations have to be decided from a shortlisted location of the left out metro-Kolkata, hockey’s second power location- Rourkela & cities and towns like Pune, Kanpur etc)

In the initial year the 8 franchise will play on Home and Away model playing 56 league matched followed by 2 semi finals and a best of 3 finals. This would mean a total of 61 matches

But for the real question will WSH help hockey make a comeback in India. What does WSH offer as advantages to Hockey in India? According to me the few advantages are

1.       Raises the profile of the game- Local players, foreign players, big money, big prizes, Investment at stake for Nimbus who would want a return. More high profile means more attention and more attention definitely helps to drive more accountability. That is the thing missing in Indian hockey. It will not happen in 1 year and we see a turn around, but if WSH continues for 10 years this definitely will happen

2.       High Salaries to Players- Hockey though the national game had very poor salaries. In recent times the salaries came to respectable level but it was nowhere near to cricket or international standards of Hockey salaries in Europe.  The WSH has good level of salaries in lakhs and it is not limited to just 15 players of national team, rather it has a depth. Each team will have a squad of 21 players with 5 foreigners. This means 16 players per team and 8 teams, a total of 138 Indians being paid a handsome salary. This will give depth of money for the first time.

3.       Large talent pool- As written in previous point a total of 138 Indians will be in the squad. This would give the selectors a large talent to select from. Since these players will be under public knowledge due to high profile tournament, hence it will reduce the incidents like bribing to be in team  since earlier the knowledge of local tournament was virtually 0

4.       Valuable experience of Foreign players- Presently Indian hockey is like a frog in well. Loads of tournaments with local players and same style of hockey being played all over. This has brought stagnation and hence over time India lost its edge.  Like in PHL, WSH brings in even more foreign players. Professional coaches, foreign players will definitely give Indian youth a lot of valuable experience. This would enable them to be aware of the styles used at other places and good things they can pick and counter them when they play in International games.

5.       Professional coaching and set-up- Unlike the local tournaments of hockey, in WSH the players will be playing for franchise where results would matter. The franchise will bring in best of coaching staff and performances and not approaches in HI or IHF will matter. This would bring the best out of players and we will see a great tournaments

There can be many other advantages too. I have my fingers crossed that the murky areas of Hockey should start to become clear in India now. Over time I would like to see this tournament even more expanded. As former Indian captain Pargat Singh had said, India would require somewhere around 600 Turf grounds for game to real have a mass appeal as well as sufficient supply of talent.

Over time Hockey in India should aim for 800 grounds by 2020. The path should be well defined. The private investment should be a way to pave for this number including the infrastructure. The Government alone cannot take us to this number. Initial 4 years should be building the base- Increase awareness and popularity of game, setting the basic infrastructure, then the next 3 years should be used for explosion. Rope in investors, have a massive increase in infrastructure and then finally last 2 years should be used for consolidation

Over time Grade B league should also start. These would be more limited to the specific regions and owned in franchise form but at a much lower costs and players paid on much lower contracts. For example if Delhi is a Franchise of WSH with Delhi, NCR as its target base, the Grade B league for Delhi can be 10 teams from vicinity like – Najafgarh, South Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Greater Noida etc. These franchises would create their local infrastructure and play tournament amongst themselves. The best players will have a chance to make it into the WSH. Local channels can be used to broadcast and local crowds can attend the matches. It is similar to the many Division 2 football leagues around the world.

2011- Start of WSH, 8 Franchises, around 60 Astro Turf Grounds

2013- 10 Franchises, 100 Astro Turf Grounds

2015- 12 Franchises, 160 Astro Turf Grounds

From 2011-15 the period of setting the base was formed. 14 Franchises and 160 grounds should help to raise the awareness of the game. After this the 3 years should be used for explosion

2016- 16 Franchises, 250 Astro Turf Grounds and 8 Grade B leagues with 10 teams each

2017- 18 Franchises, 400 Astro Turf Grounds and 18 Grade B league with 10 teams each

2018- 20 Franchises, 600 Astro Turf Grounds and 20 Grade B leagues with 10 teams each

After the explosion in teams, infra  the next 2 years will be for consolidation of game.

2019- 20 Franchises, 700 Astro Turf Grounds and 20 Grade B teams with 12 teams each

2020- 20 Franchises, 800 Astro Turf Grounds and 20 Grade B teams with 15 teams each

In the end we have 800 Astro Turf grounds, the required Infra for the game. With 20 Grade A franchise and 300 Grade B franchise and 800 grounds would mean that there would be enough opportunity for the youth to exploit the area of Hockey as a profession rather than using it as a entry point into the government jobs. This would do hockey a sea of good.

I know I take things too far, but if we do not dream how can we chase our dreams. Looking for some exciting times for Hockey and then I will update hockey on this blog too. Waiting for December for WSH.

Great Initiative by Nimbus & IHF

Recently in News is a great Initiative. IHF and Nimbus announced to form a Hockey League which will start in November 2011 and end in Feb with over 250 Players and 100 Matches. What is good is that WSH will cover the flaws that PHL had. All the matches of PHL were held in just one city. Hence what incentive would have any fan have to watch a match between Pune and Chennai. Such matches had empty stadiums while matches of Sher e Jallandar or Chandigarh Dynamos had full houses in Chandigarh. When the tournament was help in Hyderabad, we had similar full houses for local teams. This shows Hockey has following. It may not be as popular as Cricket but still has a decent enough following

WSH has announced that it will be a 10 team competition. Each Team will be of a Franchisee which will be owned by some corporate or person just like IPL teams. I tried to anticipate the city which could have IPL teams. They can be broadly classified into 3 categories
1. Cities where hockey is really popular
2. Cities which have good economy and population to support any such initiative.
3. Cities which have initiative to support such initiative.

In the first category I would put the following Cities:- Chandigarh, Ludhiana & Jallandar, Rourkela
In 2nd category would be following towns:- Mumbai, Calcutta, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Cochin, Chandigarh
In 3rd category the cities are:- Kanpur, Lucknow, Jaipur, Bhopal, Indore, Guwahti (and Imphal Combined) & Ranchi, Nagpur

This makes a list of 20 Cities. In the long term the WSH should be a 20 city spectacle with 380 matches and around 450 players involved. This would give a complete following and all parts of India involved in it.

The tournament should be held for 90 days with 30 Matches per week. The match timings can be 6 to 7.30 PM, 7.30 to 9 PM, 9 to 10.30 PM, 10.30 to 12 PM on weekdays and on Saturday Sunday and extra match from 4.30 to 6 PM. This would give an excellent TV as well as Stadium Crowds. The earlier slots can be given to teams of smaller cities as people there can easily finish office and reach the stadium by 6 and later slots to bigger cities. Such an slotting would also mean complete house full in stadiums.

Hence the Total 20 teams can be by any names. If I steal PHL and IPL names then teams can be
1. Mumbai Thunders
2. Maratha Warriors Pune
3. Hyderabad Sultans
4. Bangalore Hi Fliers
5. Chennai Veerans
6. Kochi Champs
7. Chandigarh Dynamos
8. Sher e Jallandar (Also have Ludhiana as a part too)
9. Delhi Dazzlers
10. Lucknow Nawabs
11. Kanpur Warriors
12. Bhopal Super Kings
13. Indore Chargers
14. Ranchi Challengers
15. Rourkela Steelers
16. Kolkotta Tigers
17. Ahmedabad Lions
18. Imphal and Guwahati Rangers
19. Jaipur Royals
20. Nagpur Thunders

As of now the players should be selected by draft system, where 4 foreign players in playing 11 should be allowed. Also 2 players from under 21 should be compulsory be there in the team. 40 Indian players would be allowed as Icon player and ranked. As per the draft system each team could get a max of 2 of these players.
Hence in a squad each team could have such a recommended structure:- Total squad of 22, with 2 Icon players, 5 Indian players from draft system, 3 Indian players from the Catchment Area, 4 Youth Players & 8 foreign players. The playing 11 would be like 4 Foreign players, 2 youth players and 5 Indian Player with at least 1 from catchment area.

It would give a chance to Indian players, youth players, have a local tinge to team with at least 3 local players- 2 Youth and 1 catchment area player. It would also give an exposure to players against Indian Ikon players as well as good foreign players. Coaches can be from any area. Good foreign players will bring new styles. The Indians would learn a lot. With money coming in, more people get interested.

In any case it is not to rival cricket. India has a huge population and can cater to each sports as well as different timings can ensure full houses for both the sports IPL and WSH.

However if I look at present which can be the 10 teams it can be as follows
1. Mumbai
2. Delhi
3. Kolkota
4. Bangalore
5. Hyderabad
6. Ahmedabad
7. Chennai
8. Jallandar
9. Chandigarh
10. Lucknow

I hope the league picks up and is a super hit