I still remember those words of Shah Rukh Khan. Before shooting the final scene for the 2007 blockbuster Chak De! India, Shah Rukh had inspired the team with his ‘seventy-minute’ speech.
“Sattar minute. Sattar minute hai tumhare paas. Shayad yeh tumhare zindagi ka sabse khaas sattar minute hogi. Aaj tum achha khelo ya burah, yeh sattar minute tumhe zindagi bhar yaad rahegi.”
That was exactly eight years ago and stepping into my shoes as coach Kabir Khan, Shah Rukh had not only inspired the team, but had also tried rejuvenating the Indian hockey.
Even today, as one talks about Chak De! India, these are the lines that come to one’s mind. But to be honest, things have changed very little for the Indian women’s team in the last eight years.
In the last few years, the Indian hockey team have pooled in foreign coaches and the basic infrastructure has improved. We couldn’t even think of hiring a foreign coach a decade ago, forget other facilities. The situation has definitely improved from what it used to be in our times. Now, the players actually get some international exposure, something which we couldn’t even think of in the early 2000.
But as a coach, I still feel this is not enough to match the international standards. If the game has to grow in India, the scenario requires an overall improvement. Even today, a large number of players find it difficult to manage a proper government job, there is still no financial security for the players and most importantly, the people in power look clueless about how to solve the problem.
Having played in various part of the world, I sincerely feel that having a Women’s Hockey League is the only solution. It will not only give the players more international exposure, but will also bring in a lot of money. Earlier, there was a notion that the Hockey Leagues will find no takers, but the men’s Hockey India League (HIL) has proven that the game is still a huge hit. It’s just that it needs a bit more expansion.
And now, it is time to introduce the women’s league. Even though, my friends in HI tell me that there is a plan to introduce such a league soon, I will only believe such stories once it happens. I have always believed that Indian women’s hockey needs an overhaul; it needs to be more professionally managed.
Once that’s done, the viewership will increase and there will be more corporate groups willing to spend on developing infrastructure for the women’s teams.
But there has to be proper ways of doing it. Just one-off effort will not be of any help and could even backfire. So, the HI should come out with a proper plan to spread the game in all the sections of the society.
Even after we won the Commonwealth Games gold in 2002, the players found it tough to get themselves a job. And even today, it becomes tough for a national-level player to get a decent job. In the last few years, only Indian Railways have hired women hockey players, while other government organisations have given it a cold shoulder. In a country like India, where most of the women players hail from lower-middle class background, getting a job is of great importance and if those areas are blocked then it’s unfair to expect good show from them.
And if this problem is not solved soon, parents will be more hesitant in sending their children to play hockey. Time and again, there have been reports of poor security, and how the players need to battle the odds. As a former player, it’s really painful to hear about such things. After the success of Chak De! India, the situation should have improved much more, sadly it hasn’t.
There are times when you feel that women’s hockey will breathe its last soon, but then, every time a Rani Rampal or a Ritu Rani shine bright on the turf, you feel all is not lost. It’s that indomitable spirit that gets women’s hockey going. But the question is—how much is too much?
Former women’s hockey coach Negi’s life had inspired Shah Rukh Khan’s character in Bollywood movie Chak De! India (As told to Shayan Acharya)