BackHockey India League: no place for older players
The fact that no Indian player above the age of 30 has made it to the league has left a trail of anger
PremiumNEW DELHI :
Prabhjot Singh couldn’t really stay away. He switched on the television and watched as the Hockey India League (HIL) brought in its new, fourth, season on Monday with the opening game between Kalinga Lancers and Uttar Pradesh Wizards. He watched the show roll out in Bhubaneswar from his Chandigarh residence. Wistful? A little. Angry? A lot.
The former India captain is not part of the hockey extravaganza this season. No Indian player over the age of 30 is.
Whatever the reason, HIL ended up excluding all such Indian players, while letting their foreign coevals play. When asked about it, Narinder Batra, president of Hockey India, which organizes the league, dismissed it as mere “gossip".
“There is no such rule," Batra said on phone.
Facts seem to indicate otherwise. Of the 135 Indian players who went under the hammer in September, none were above 30.
“I don’t know why they are not in the league, you should ask the franchises about it," said Batra. Franchise sources, however, made it clear that they could only buy players made available by HIL in the auction—and it had no players over 30. Batra’s blanket denial is interesting, given that Indian hockey legend Dhanraj Pillay, who was part of the Uttar Pradesh Wizards set-up last year, and is usually a man in the know, commented publicly on the “rule" when it first came to light in August, and requested Batra to “reconsider" it.
“I request Narinder Batra to reconsider the decision," the former India captain had said at a press conference then. “Players like Adrian D’Souza, Arjun Halappa, Prabodh Tirkey have left a deep impact on hockey and they are still as capable as they were a few years back. If foreigners who are above the age of 30 can be accommodated, I am sure Indians can as well."
“That’s how Hockey India operates," says 35-year-old Prabhjot, who represented the now defunct Mumbai Magicians in 2013 and 2014.
“We were told of this verbally so that they don’t have to take the blame. They don’t want to have anyone questioning them... They made us submit our biodata before the auction and whoever was over 30 was just not included in the list. Even then, we did not get any official communication from Hockey India telling us why they had left us out. I could have understood if I alone had been excluded, but why have they not taken Deepak Thakur (35) or Arjun Halappa (35) or Vikram Pillay (34) or Adrian D’Souza (31)?" asks Prabhjot.
“They don’t give any information or talk to anyone, just one fine day come up with things like these," Prabhjot’s former India teammate, Rajpal Singh, 32, said on phone. “Age is just a number. How can it be a criteria for selecting players? What matters is performance and fitness, and there are lots of Indian players over the age of 30 who are doing very well."
Hockey India has shelled out good money to include “older" foreign players. Thirty-six-year-old Australian legend Jamie Dwyer, who fetched a price of $57,000 , or around ₹ 38 lakh, leads the brigade of twelve 30-and-over international stars who feature in the 2016 HIL.
“The purpose of leagues like this is ultimately to strengthen the national set-up, to increase the interaction between the youngsters and the seniors; but there are no seniors left," adds Rajpal, who was part of the title-winning Delhi Waveriders team in 2014. At 29, India captain Sardar Singh, who is playing for the Punjab Warriors, is the oldest Indian player in the HIL line-up.
Prabhjot and Rajpal, however, are the only distinct, dissenting voices in a sea of murmurs. Many of the players who have been affected have not spoken out, possibly because they are still part of the national set-up.
“What makes HIL think that 30 is too old to play hockey?" says Prabhjot. “By that measure, should we also put a random age limit for sports administrators and say above 50 is too old for them to hold an official post? Show me any other league in any sport, in India or outside, which discriminates against players due to their age. The fact is that if fitness permits, 34-35 is now the ideal age for professional sport. We have, by then, gained a lot of match experience and have the maturity, and confidence to handle situations."
Certainly, trends in world sport show that advances in physical training, and therapy, are prolonging athletes’ shelf life, helping them play well into their 30s.
“Even now, I am invited to play in the German and the English League, because they say they are not concerned about my age," says Prabhjot, who has played for HLC Rot-Weiss Munich in Germany and Indian Gymkhana, London. “But in my own country, I am unwanted."
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