World hockey chiefs missing the mass-interest India-Pakistan encounters

India and Pakistan may no longer be the prima donnas of world hockey, yet a contest between the sub-continental hockey rivals continues to provide sparks and plenty of thrills, so much so that the International Hockey Federation is missing the mass-interest encounters that used to get the cash registers ringing.

With India and Pakistan now placed in two different tiers of world hockey rankings, they do not feature together in FIH events, making the governing body yearn for what used to be the showpiece contest at any international tournament. From the days when India and Pakistan used to meet in the title contests or semi-finals of global events, a stage arrived when they even met in the play-off for the wooden spoon after their fortunes on the hockey turf nosedived.

Still, the sub-continental encounter remained one of the most-cherished fixtures for the sport’s followers and also the organisers. Be it sponsorship, television ratings or gate money, an India versus Pakistan match at any venue in the world was a key attraction. Yet, unfortunately for the international federation (FIH) these encounters became rare at tournaments under its direct purview since they discontinued the marquee Champions Trophy in 2018.

Starting in 1978 as a round-robin event featuring the six top-ranked nations, the Champions Trophy underwent some format changes that in the end allowed the FIH bosses to invite two teams they considered important for the event. That is where invites for India and Pakistan helped bring them back to the most-important annual FIH tourney.

The Champions Trophy became a casualty of the FIH’s plans for a global pro-league, where their analysts felt teams would no longer have the time to play in what until then was the spotlight of the annual event calendar. The Pro league has dramatically altered the international competition scenario, at a huge cost for the organisers, but the thrills of the single-venue Champions Trophy were being missed.

Among the things the FIH’s marketing folks started to miss was an Indo-Pak encounter that was often a certainty at the Champions Trophy. For sure, their TV partners would not have minded the enhanced TV audiences that this single contest attracted. With Pakistan not featuring in the FIH Pro League, this was not even on the cards.

From its Euro-centric outlook of yore, when the bosses used to ponder over ways to reduce the dominance of these countries on the grassy hockey pitches, the FIH changed course when it started inviting suggestions to lift the sagging morale of hockey in India and Pakistan. The falling quality was now becoming a financial risk for FIH’s tournament hosts, and TV partners who were deprived of a mass market.

The sub-continental teams even began faltering in making the starting line-up of major events. First India failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, and then Pakistan followed suit by missing two successive Olympics - at Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Tokyo in 2021.

In between, Pakistan also failed to qualify for The Hague World Cup in 2014, and they will not be among the 16 countries to play in the upcoming World Cup in Odisha in January 2023.

FIH’s new President, the Pakistan-born Mohammad Tayyab Ikram of Macau has a better understanding of the significance of India-Pakistan encounters, having reaped the benefits of these at events organised by the Asian Hockey Federation.

As CEO of the Asian Hockey Federation, Ikram knows what interest these showpiece matches produced at his tournaments. Some FIH officials had even began to envy the Asian continental body whose events could even schedule multiple games between these arch hockey rivals.

Ikram was elected President of the FIH on Saturday with a runaway 74-47 victory , in an online vote, over former Belgian captain Coudron, on whom rested Europe’s hopes of regaining control of the global game. Europe had monopolised all top positions in the international hockey body for 92 years since its formation in 1924, until India’s Narinder Batra was elected as President at FIH’s 2016 Congress in Dubai. Batra retained the position with a thin victory over Courdon in 2021, but caused a mid-term election owing to his resignation this year.

Unanimously backed by the whole of Asia, Ikram was able to claim most of the African votes, and polled some from Oceania and even Eastern Europe to leave the European challenger way behind. While three countries ‘Abstained’ or polled a ‘No Vote’ in the President’s election, more surprising was that four nations who had registered for the election Congress did not care to log in and cast the vote.

Ikram has given non-subtle hints of his fondness for the Champions Trophy, which was the first tournament the FIH had launched after the success of the World Cup. Soon after his election as FIH President, Ikram said, “I am a big fan of Champions Trophy. The biggest positive was the way it was organised.”

“There was this property within the property, the India versus Pakistan contest in the Champions Trophy,” said Ikram of an asset whose benefits had been squandered away.

Ikram and his Executive Board will have to redouble their efforts to revive the Champions Trophy, for which the FIH will have to find a slot in the international schedule and start search for host cities and sponsors.

“We cannot start the Champions Trophy tomorrow, it needs careful planning,” said the FIH president.

“I have to discuss with my colleagues what modifications we can do to the Champions Trophy, which too became monotonous to some extent.”

Ikram, of course, will have to look at the Champions Trophy both for men and women. Would the missing thrills, and the huge television ratings, of an annual Champions Trophy convince the FIH Executive Board to revive what was its marquee annual event until four years ago.

Even though Europe faltered in seizing control of the global hockey administration, both the men and women’s World Cups are now heading back to The Netherlands, who will share the hosting rights with Belgium as the two World Cups are staged simultaneously in 2026.

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