New Delhi: After more than four years owing to delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup has returned to Odisha’s shores Friday, kicking off with Rio Olympics gold medallist Argentina taking on South Africa at Bhubaneswar’s Kalinga Stadium.
Sixteen countries, divided into four groups, are participating in the event. The group winners qualify directly for the quarter finals, while the runners-up and third placed nations have to fight it out in a preliminary “crossover” round to clinch the remaining spots.
Given the protracted gap between tournaments, many of these 16 countries have undergone generational transitions due to retirements, on-field performances, successes and failures since the last World Cup which also took place in Odisha.
Amid the absence of traditional heavyweights like Pakistan and the decline in performances of Ireland and Canada, this edition of World Cup features two debutants — 15th-ranked Wales and 22nd-ranked Chile.
India’s underperformance post-1975
The deep investment in the sport by the Odisha government and the subsequent growing revenue market mean that the biggest question surrounds the podium prospects of host nation, India.
India dominated the men’s hockey in the Olympics, winning most of the editions in the 20th century until Moscow 1980. In its early years of existence in the 1970s, the Men’s World Cup was mostly Pakistan’s forte, but India were regular finalists, with the off-field rivalries adding extra spice.
Pakistan won 4 Men’s World Cups overall but lost to its arch-rival in the final in 1975, which remains India’s only World Cup trophy in men’s hockey. India has never even made it to the semifinals since then.
A widely shared truism behind India’s hockey decline in the subsequent decades is the advent of astroturf pitches, allowing players in the European and Trans-Tasman nations with better resources and infrastructure to practice regularly and advance far ahead of Asian nations in quality of play.
Another commonly cited factor is the abolition of the offside rule in 1992, which, according to sports journalist Debayan Sen in ESPN, “gave foreign teams that didn’t always have good dribblers new avenues to scoring” and India were glacial in adjusting tactically.
But the problem ran far deeper than technological modernisation, financial inequalities and rule changes, as the rot of mismanagement was set within the game’s governance in India.
Citing former player Viren Rasquinha, Sen argued in his 2020 explainer that India fell behind due to “the absence of quality coaching”, arguably linked to the infrastructural stagnation and the exodus of Anglo-Indians, Parsis and Kodavas who had historically made for a significant chunk of the playing and coaching pool during the Olympics golden age.
Former India technical director Ric Charlesworth concurs with this view that India “took their eye off the ball” in the 1980s-90s while other nations got to work and improved their hockey coaching systems.
“”When I was young, all my coaches were Indians. They would come after their retirements and stuff and we learnt our hockey from the subcontinent. But then India just stopped their development, constant learning. What also contributed was that India won the Cricket World Cup in 1983 and that took priority. Hockey was put behind in public memory and it suffered,” Charlesworth told India Today in 2018.
The former coach of Australia men’s and women’s teams also said that India only turned a corner with the advent of the now-defunct Hockey India League, a perspective that ThePrint previously shared.
However, the gradual improvement in performances post-2014 and the tenure of current head coach Graham Reid means that India appears to be finally on the way to make the most of its deep pool of talents. Moreover, hockey governance saw a period of reform since 2009 with the new entity, Hockey India, replacing the previous federation that was dismissed by the Indian Olympic Association.
Fast-forward to 2023 and the current federation is now not only witnessing the fruits of infrastructural investment driven by Odisha but is also headed by an ex-player from Sundargarh and India’s record holder for most international caps — Dilip Tirkey.
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So, who are the favourites?
India broke a 40-year-hoodoo in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 by clinching a bronze medal against Germany, but there are 5 nations currently ranked higher than Harmanpreet Singh’s side on recent form — England, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and, most importantly, Belgium.
If the 2000s and 2010s were the story of Germany and Australia, then the late 2010s and early 2020s belong to Belgium, the current title holders for both the Men’s World Cup and the Olympics.
Built on the traditions and heritage of club hockey much like its footballing counterpart, Belgium embarked on a 15-year high performance project, culminating in the dual success under Kiwi head coach Shane McLeod.
“The development programmes addressed not just the players across age groups, but also the coaches. Experts were roped in abroad to not just train players, but the coaches as well, ensuring sustained developed for the future,” senior journalist Leslie Xavier argued in NewsClick.
Since the Tokyo Olympics, however, Belgium has been slow to integrate younger players into the senior set-up, perhaps treating the 2023 edition of the World Cup as one last ride for much of the old guard.
With an average age of 29.55, Belgium ranks as the second oldest side at this tournament, behind only South Korea and have been relatively inconsistent in tournaments like the FIH Pro League, but remain ranked 2 in the world. Meanwhile, the current world’s no. 1, Australia, boast an average age of 28.10 and come into the tournament in red-hot form, beating India 4-1 in a bilateral test series.
Although the Tokyo Olympics is a distant memory, we may well see a rematch of that gold medal match between Belgium and Australia, and it’s up to India, the Netherlands, England and others to stand in their way.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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