BHUBANESWAR: Tucked away in a small corner on the websites of most national hockey federations is a pledge of equality. It speaks about equal opportunity for all players irrespective of sex, religion, orientation and race. That last identifier — race — is important as it assures a pathway for players from all communities from the grassroots to the national team. However, what's laid out on the internet, or on a piece of paper, can be tricky to execute.
There still exists a perception that hockey, at least at the very top end, is an elite sport. England coach Paul Revington spoke about it after the team's training session. "I think all the countries probably need to keep working on that area," he told this daily. "I wouldn't say it's perfect but again, I wouldn't say it's not open and free for everyone. I think any athlete and individual that enters the programme and really wants to do well has equal opportunities from a Great Britain perspective."
Great Britain seems like a natural starting point because the debate around a lack of diversity among hockey players has exploded in the last couple of years there. Rhys Smith, a 25-year-old who has played for the senior sides of both GB and England, felt the under-representation so much he began a project called "Hockey Inner City' to tackle the issue. "Hockey is very much dominated by people from privileged backgrounds and people that have gone to private schools," he had told Sky Sports last year.
Another young player, Tendo Kimuli, faced vile abuse from the crowd because of his skin colour.
Research put forth by The Hockey Museum in 2022 made for grim reading. It said that 'Smith is only one of estimated 21 ethnically diverse men that have represented England or GB at international level in the last 50 years, with the majority of those players of South Asian origin. Four diverse ethnic women have featured for England or GB since 1978', the same Sky Sports article mentioned.
Wales coach, Dan Newcombe, explains why the sport has the problem of under-representation from minority communities. "In the UK, hockey is played a lot in independent schools," he explains. "The profile of the individuals in the independent schools tends to be less diverse but hopefully that's changing. There are small pockets of clubs in the UK where they have diverse playing populations. When you look at football, it's really diverse. When you look at cricket, it's really diverse but hockey tends to not be diverse enough."
That can be applied to most hockey-playing nations where the primary demographic is white (it's important to place on record that this hasn't been by design). One only needs to listen to Terrance Pieters, one of the very few coloured players to have ever played for Netherlands' across both men's and women's teams. That just translates to one thing: the very real gap that exists between the multi-cultural make-up of the general population and the homogenous make-up of the squad here. That gap exists among other teams like GB, Spain and Netherlands. But the coaches of all those four teams this paper spoke to said there were effective pathways in place to attract kids to the sport irrespective of their race.
One country that has made rapid strides in this regard is South Africa. Thanks to their transformation goals, it's codified. "In South Africa, that used to be a problem," Cheslyn Gie, the chief coach of the side, says. "That has now changed completely in our country. But this is always going to be an ongoing battle. Unfortunately, our country has a history of segregation. That is always going to be at the back of people's minds. We all play the beautiful game, your skin colour doesn't determine what you achieve in this game."