The one-eyed lead the blind?

FROM THE STANDS

S R Khelkoodkar

Most people nowadays are resigned to the fact that Indian hockey is nearly at rock-bottom. We lose by too many goals, too often. And few care enough to read - let alone report - about it unless there is intrigue or scandal attached. In short, hockey is a no-no.

So it wasn`t very surprising that there should have been so little fuss over the latest set of rule changes implemented by the Federation of International Hockey (FIH) -- even though India is pretty badly affected by them. 

In hockey, the Olympics are very, very important. Some would argue that teams like India use their performance in the World Cup to try and qualify for the Olympics.

The change is critically important. It is in respect of the number of teams granted automatic qualifications to the Olympics.

Where earlier just the five continental champions and the hosts were given automatic qualification (for a total of six teams), now there will be nine such automatic qualifiers. The extra three will be determined by world rankings, but in a more complicated way.

Under the new rule, world rankings will determine which continents will be allotted the extra slots. The respective continental tournaments will ultimately decide the teams that get these slots.

World rankings, of course, are determined by performance in various tournaments. And this is where India and other Asian teams are adversely affected by the change.

The framework that determines world rankings, which has not been changed, gives European competitions a higher weightage than it does Asian ones. It neglects, for various reasons, about a third of the international matches which are played. Presumably, these are the matches that India expects to win.

I know this doesn`t appear complete. But that is because this is all the sense that I have been able to make of it myself. Reason: very little has been written about the issue by our sports press.  

The PTI did a story that appeared in a few newspapers, including the Times of India and the Hindustan Times. However, it seems to have been written either solely for intrepid fans who know the existing rules and qualifying structures inside out, or by someone who hasn`t made an effort to understand the changes, let alone report them fully. I rather suspect it is the latter.

Consider the following paragraph. It tries to explain how the remaining slots for the Olympics will be filled: 

"The former 12-team tournaments to determine the remaining qualifiers have been replaced by six competitions - three each for men and women - of six teams each. They will be played on a round robin basis with the top two teams facing off to decide who make it to Beijing."

How many tournaments were there? Does a team get to play more than one tournament? How are the teams, and the opponents, determined? Maybe there wasn`t enough space to tell me all the facts, but I`d rather not be overwhelmingly confused instead.

The Telegraph seems to have taken the safer option. Having paraphrased the changes, they have gone on to do what they do best - authority bashing.

"Confused IHF (Indian Hockey Federation)", apparently, are not sure how to protest." They were not consulted before the change, and since the FIH committee doesn`t contain any Indian, there was nobody to make the point to them. "Previously, we had Munir Sait in the committee for a long time, but he has retired," IHF secretary K. Jyothikumaran is reported to have said.

According to The Telegraph, he doesn`t seem too sure of what comes next. The IHF hasn`t discussed it yet, and they are wondering whether to consult the Asian federation, as perhaps other Asian teams are affected as well.

Sahara, the Indian team sponsor, however, has made its displeasure known. What impact that will have remains to be seen.

The Telegraph, however, is pretty clear on what lies ahead:"The IHF is yet to wake up to reality. India will now have to either win the Doha Asian Games gold or finish in the top-six in the next World Cup to make the Olympic cut directly. Otherwise, they would have to fight for three places in the qualifiers."

And if any of this happens, we can expect some more dispirited reporting.

Contact: khelkhoodkar@gmail.com