By Harpal Singh Bedi
Jakarta, Aug 22 (UNI) Three days of hockey in the 18th edition of the Asian Games has not been a good advertisement for a sport which is struggling to get sponsors for money and crowd to fill the stadium.
Asian Hockey Federation’s idea to get as many teams as possible to take part in the Asian Games in a bid to promote the sport in the continent looks good on paper but it has clearly backfired.
What these three days have produced is brazenly lopsided encounters, some teams not even having basic understanding of the game.
Just to get the numbers has been counterproductive with cynicism taking precedence over the constructive criticism.
Just have a look, so far, 152 goals have been scored in three days- first day - four matches were played among the women teams, resulting in 41 goals, of which, three were scored by the losers.
The shape of things to come were evident on that very day, next day (Monday), the proceedings took further farcical turn with 70 goals being scored in the men’s competition.
It was later confirmed that draw of the competition has been changed at the last minute to accommodate few more teams. Indian men’s team was originally to play their first match on August 22 but were asked to face Indonesia in their opener.
The defending champions thanked the organising and technical committee with a massive 17-0 win. It is considered to be the biggest win for India in these Games. But does it make any difference?
The third day turned out to be more ridicule, it was women’s turn and the winners among them piled up second successive haul of 41 goals, with Indian girls decimating Kazakhstan 21-0 .
The way Indonesian men and this evening Kazakh women played, raises a very big question mark about the feasibility and visibility of such teams playing at this level.
This is no way to promote the game rather if such teams are persisted with at this level of competition, then AHF should not expect either sponsors or the crowd.
Teams like Indonesia, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong China, Kazakhstan reduce the intensity of the competition which one expects at this level of Tournament.
Time for AHF to revisit the format of the tournament. It should have qualifying round for most of the teams. They know who are the teams who need to be given direct entry and couple of teams be added through qualifications.
The Asian Games tournament needs quality not quantity.
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