Indian ice-hockey team breaks new grounds

What does the team in the movie Chak de India and the Indian ice hockey team in real life have in common? A determined coach, a bunch of motivated players and more importantly, rather sadly, lack of funds and infrastructure.

The Indian ice hockey team's American coach Adam Sherlip pays his own airfare to come to India and trains the team for free. Most of the players, since 2009, have been paying some amount from their own pockets in order to participate in international tournaments and to buy the gear.

Just picture this: The squad of 22 representing 1.2 billion Indians had no option but to train for an international competition – Ice Hockey Federation Challenge Cup Division One – on an ice skating rink at a Gurgaon mall near Delhi. The rink was barely one-third the size of a standard one.

But that's the least embarrassing part about their campaign.

Their worst moment came when they didn't have the funds to participate in the tournament in Kuwait that began on April 18 and goes on till April 24. Rather than cribbing about it and feeling jealous about the richer sportspersons in the country, especially the cricketers, they preferred to take it upon themselves to raise money.

And, it was no paltry sum. The 22-member team is made of seven jawans from the Indian Army, four from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) while the rest are mostly civilians and students. They needed a minimum of Rs 20 lakh to compete in the tournament. With no signs of funding, the team took to social media last week for help and through a successful crowd-funding campaign, they managed to collect enough money to allow them to go for the tournament.

What an idea!

The brilliant idea of taking to social media was of Vednank Singh, the digital marketing head of the Ice Hockey Association of India. "We have a national team and are begging for money... Please support our ice hockey team travelling to Kuwait. We need to raise funds for the team. A 20k donation will cover cost for one player," read one of Ice Hockey India's (IHI) tweets.

Another read: "We demand our share of love, because be it Cricket or Ice Hockey, the association of tricolor shall be respected everywhere #SupportIceHockey."

Corporates, and other companies came to their rescue. Cricketer Gautam Gambhir donated Rs 4 lakh. And in less than a week, the team got the amount they needed.

"The problem is sustenance. Though the interest our campaign has generated is tremendous, it will all go to waste if the federation does not build on this," coach Sherlip told dna before leaving for Kuwait on Thursday. "We have a long road to go. We need support. We need entrepreneurs who can develop a business around this."

Not having funds to participate in international tournaments is just the tip of the iceberg though. "The real problem is the fact that we have zero infrastructure," says the team's captain Tsewang Gyaltson.

'Bigger than cricket'

The 23-year-old from Leh Ladakh started playing ice hockey when he was five. "If you think that people go crazy over cricket in India, you should come to Leh Ladakh to see the craze for ice hockey. As soon as the ponds or lakes freeze, it's party time. You'll see everyone on skates. Our local competitions are extremely intense. Watching them play with so much passion, it's impossible not to take a liking to the sport. I think that is how I started playing the sport. Though I've sustained many injuries, I think I'll play till my body completely disallows me to do so," says Gyaltson.

It's no surprise that Gyaltson feels ice hockey is bigger than cricket. After all, this sport was introduced in India nearly a century ago. The British brought the game to the country and played it in Shimla.

More than two decades ago, the Ladakh Scouts unit of the Indian Army started playing the game with wooden sticks, using flattened stones as pucks. Soon, the game became popular in places where it snows.

Packed two months

That's the worrisome factor — not the fact that it's only popular in places where it snows, but the fact that it can be played only when it snows. That's just two months in a year. That means in those two months, the players have to play local tournaments, give trials to get selected for the national team, and then, of course, train for the international competitions.

So, how to do countries like Oman and Kuwait train right through the year? It's a no-brainer. Ice rinks are developed by the government or private firms to take the game forward.

India, too, tried the same. The government of Uttarakhand launched India's only international ice skating rink in Dehradun in 2011. They did it as they were hosting South Asian Winter Games.

Nevertheless, it was an excellent opportunity to take tha game forward in the country. So excited was Gyaltson about the rink that he decided to study BTech in Dehradun.

However, he soon learnt that his joy was going to be short-lived. The rink was shut after the Asia Challenge Cup the subsequent year.

"I couldn't believe that they shut it. It was my second year of college and I had two more years to go. I was stuck in Dehradun. That was probably the saddest part of my life," says Gyaltson, who would go every winter to Ladakh just to play in the local tournaments and earn some money by doing so.

Another setback to the development of the game is that the equipment needed to play ice hockey isn't available in India, and so, has to be imported.

Expensive equipment

Since ice hockey is one of the fastest games ever played, and injuries are quite common, the equipment and body gear needs to be of good quality. It's quite expensive too.

"Most of our body has to be covered. Totally, the cost for a single person will be about Rs 70,000- 1,20,000. But since we can't get it in the country, we buy it whenever we go for international tournaments.

The Ice Hockey Association of India (IHIA), too, provides us with whatever equipment they can," says Gyaltson.

But the most beneficial help comes from the country whose national sport is ice hockey — Canada. "The Canadian High Commission has an ice hockey team that comes to Ladakh to play tournaments every winter. Canadian expats in Ladakh donate hockey sticks and gear to teams that struggle with finance. There are many non-profit organisations in Canada that donate a lot of equipment but it still isn't enough," says Gyaltson, who hopes to make a living out of playing ice hockey.

The way out

So, what are the possible solutions?

Coach Sherlip explains: "Access to the game is critical. Not just playing but also watching. National Hockey League games should be broadcast live on television. That would be a huge benefit for the sport because it will get visibility and then people will know what an amazing sport it is. They should also get players from abroad to raise the standard of the game. A league will not be a bad idea."

For that to happen, Sherlip feels that the government support is vital. For the record, the only support which IHAI gets the government is a paltry sum of Rs1 lakh a year, that too for conducting National Championships, and not for the development of the game.

"If the government revives the ice rink in Dehradun, it will be a big plus for us. At least, we won't have to train in malls. I'm sure that if malls can have rinks for commercial purposes, we can have a rink to practice in order to represent the country."

And while the team waits for government support, Sherlip continues to back and support the team in the best way he can. He runs a non-profit organisation called 'The Hockey Foundation' that donates jerseys and ice hockey gear. Ask him what makes him come back year after year to coach the boys, and he says, "It's about making a true difference in people's lives. Also, the challenge is what it's all about. The challenge is what makes it special. If any team was guaranteed to win, no coach would take up that job."

After the online campaign, the moolah has started coming in. And apart from the corporates that donated large sums of money, Gyaltson feels that Gambhir's donation will be a big plus. "First of all, it's very generous of him (Gambhir). For a cricketer, to support another game is amazing. I know that if a cricketer says something, the entire country will know about it. I'm sure that people will now start following us. After all, we Indians should keep in mind that people playing other sports too represent the flag."