SOUND. Noise. Roar. Whistle.
For back-to-back World Cups, the Indian men's hockey team were fairly familiar with the concepts thanks to Odisha's raucous crowds. Every time they got the ball, a tsunami of din would emanate from the terraces.
Like an analogue mobile phone's alarm, the racket was head-spinning.
In 2018 and 2023, this sound made the men's World Cups in India a heady experience, especially during India games. Without exaggeration, it existed as a separate entity, like a living, breathing organism. It's why a succession of coaches devised specific plans around keeping the crowd quiet. "It was so loud I couldn't even hear myself think," one Belgian player famously told this daily during a mixed zone interaction after a group game against India in 2018.
For two entire World Cups, India always had the crowd. This year, though, they won't have that. That familiar wall of noise won't be visible during their matches.
In isolation, that alone would put eighth-ranked India on the back foot. The effects of the crowd cannot be understated on a sports team. However, it may not be all that bad because the men' team are often liberated when they play away from home.
In 2018, they lost in the quarterfinals. In 2023, they lost to New Zealand in a shootout even before the last eight stage. In the CWG final in New Delhi in 2010, Australia beat them 8-0. Away from home, though, they have picked up back-to-back Olympic medals.
In science, there is a theory called the Baumeister home-choke hypothesis. Proposed by Baumeister and Steinhilber, they held that sports teams tend to perform poorly during clutch situations at home because of the intense pressure and scrutiny thanks to the high expectations of the home crowd. This phenomenon, they said, may adversely impact otherwise machine-like qualities of elite sports sides in big events (Championships).
Siddharth Pandey, an FIH level 3 coach, supports the idea that the men' team play better away from home. "If you see India's record," he tells The New Indian Express, "it could be a coincidence, but India plays better away from home in international tournaments. Whatever the reasons, I don't know. They medalled at the Olympics in Japan and Paris. At the World Cups in 2018 (Bhubaneswar) and 2023 in India, they didn't finish in the top four. It's a very strange scenario, where maybe they are under pressure, or maybe they are distracted with families coming in."
Pandey, a TV pundit at the 2023 World Cup as well as the last two Games in 2021 and 2024, adds: "There could be a 1000 different reasons, but I believe they are a better side offshore. The numbers are there for everyone to see."
Watching an India game at home is a totally different experience to observing an India team perform away from home. Here's an illustration to explain why. Indian crowds frequently urge their team forward as soon as they receive the ball. While this adds an extra layer of verticality to their forward play, patient build-up play can go for a toss as the players can get lost in the noise. Quite a few coaches have held the belief that they could weaponise Indian crowds when playing in India.
Here's how India's coach Craig Fulton described this conundrum while speaking about the uniqueness of this situation last year. "The crowd is baying for blood so they want goals," he had said. "When the noise goes up, everyone thinks we have to hit it harder or do more. We just need to stay calm."
It's why the South African even experimented with piped crowd music via loudspeakers during training sessions. "We did it for Pro League preparation at training due to the packed and noisy crowds in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela," he had said during another interaction with this mast.
Within a year of Fulton’s appointment, he had deduced that the passion from the stands — that energy — could impact his team. "If we had an empty Stadium and we played that game (he was referencing the Australia game where India lost 4-6 in Bhubaneswar in February 2024), I think we would have had a different result," the South African had told The New Indian Express in 2024.
"In the sense of what happens to the players, what's expected of them, what is the next emotional decision they make because we are trying to play harder, faster. What happens to the expectations when we get into the opponent's half? It goes through the roof. That's why it's such a beautiful spectacle. But at the same time, if you are out of control in that space and another team works on that, how does it help you? Nothing to take away from the players and the passion of the fans."
Now, almost 30 months later, Fulton and his charges will play in foreign conditions in the Netherlands and, if they make it that far, Belgium. In normal circumstances, they may be yearning for familiar Indian motifs: a DJ playing Indian music, continuous chants of ‘jeetega bhai jeetega, India jeetega’ and that heightened electricity from the crowds as soon as one of their own dribbles past the halfway line towards the opposition goal.
But, in a way, they may be better off without any of these factors.
Year Tournament Home/Away Final result
2018 WC | Home | Quarterfinals
2021 Olympics | Away | Bronze (No crowds because of Covid)
2023 WC | Home | Crossover before quarterfinals
2024 Olympics | Away | Bronze