Indian hockey recently received a fillip to keep its newfound momentum going. After being consigned to the bin for seven years, the auction for the resurrected Hockey India League (HIL) saw several hockey medallists being snapped up for big bucks.
Harmanpreet Singh, who has won back-to-back medals at the Olympics, was signed for Rs 78 lakh. Midfielder Hardik Singh was signed for Rs 70 lakh, while Abhishek, the forward who could be a national team mainstay for the next decade, was snapped up for Rs 72 lakh.
While the money always helps, HIL serves a bigger purpose. Its comebacK - with new teams, new faces and more international stars - gives young players the perfect platform to learn. Take the Tamil Nadu Dragons. The young-but-inconsistent Karthi Selvam will rub shoulders with the likes of Blake Govers and Jip Janssen.
At the Kalinga Lancers, young Sanjay will continue to learn the art of defending from the likes of Arthur van Doren, one of the best in the business.
With Indian players not playing in foreign leagues, this will give them another perspective. It’s what happened when the HIL was first commissioned. India, not among the world’s elite back then, learned from the best and upskilled soon.
A lot of the established Indian internationals at present - including the likes of Manpreet Singh and Harmanpreet Singh - have come on record to say how it helped them during their younger days.
Hockey India will hope HIL 2.0 does the same thing for the next generation of players. The onus is now on Hockey India and the clubs to find a way to keep this going for the foreseeable future.
Making money may be a challenge for the teams, but it is not impossible to become profitable down the line. The other good thing Hockey India has done is bringing in a women’s league as well.
While it’s a blow that there are only going to be four teams to start (to be raised to six from 2026), it’s a start. While the men’s team are riding on a high, the women’s league could act as the booster shot they need.
With the 2026 Commonwealth Games unlikely to feature hockey, this will also offer high-level exposure to all Indian players in a critical year, as the 2026 Asian Games will act as an Olympic qualifier. The next challenge is to keep the whole enterprise going.