Sachin Tendulkar For Hero Honda		Rahul Dravid for Thomson Television

he Asian Games started the day the ICC Champions Trophy in cricket ended. 6,700 athletes from 44 countries will be participating in 38 disciplines in the Busan Asiad. Unfortunately, this mega multi-national sporting event will not even be a blip on Corporate India's radar screen, which fails to look beyond just one sport - men's cricket.

It all started with Sony Television Network, which paid $255 million for satellite television rights for the next two cricket World Cups. This was a staggering amount when compared to just $16 million that ESPN-Star and Doordarshan paid for the previous World Cup.

Sony TV reportedly charged the main telecast sponsor a whopping $7.6 million for the ICC Champions Trophy and the World Cup. Sony then charged $5,000 - $5,500 for a 30-second spot in the ICC Champions Trophy. Sony managed to sell 90% of its airtime for the Champions Trophy telecast, mainly due to the mad rush of the multi-national advertisers to associate themselves with cricket.

The reason for the herd mentality of these multi-nationals is that TRP ratings of cricket telecasts range from 10 - 20, compared to an average of 3 - 5 for a soap/serial/sitcom.

As a result, Hero Honda spends 80% - 90% of its total advertising budget on cricket alone, including paying $15 million to be an official sponsor of the World Cup.

Pepsico, a maker of carbonated sugar water, spends 60% - 70% of its advertising budget on cricket, including paying $50 million to be a global partner at the next two World Cups. Pepsi has Harbhajan Singh, Mohammad Kaif and Ajit Agarkar endorsing their carbonated product.

Bharati Telecom spends 40% of its budget on cricket, including having Indian captain Saurav Ganguly be the Airtel brand ambassador.

LG Electronics spent Rs. 35 crore on airtime, in addition to paying $50 million to be a global partner at the next two World Cups.

The Sahara Group is spending Rs. 20 crore for an advertising campaign that will feature the entire Indian cricket team.

ESPN-Star, which lost the rights to cricket's World Cup, has signed Sachin Tendulkar for Rs. 12 crores to be its brand ambassador.

The advertising agencies and event management companies are laughing their way to the cricketing bank. The marketing airheads cooked up something called TINA (there is no alternative), and then proceeded to sign India's top 5 cricketers to endorsement deals worth a collective sum of Rs. 28 crores, as can be seen by the table below:

Player	Signed By	Rate	Clients
Sachin Tendulkar	Worldtel	Rs. 100 lakhs / client	9
Saurav Ganguly	Percept D'Mark	Rs. 175 lakhs / client	8
Rahul Dravid	21st Century Media	Rs. 400 lakhs / year	5
V. V. S. Lakshman	Sporting Frontiers	Rs. 100 lakhs / year	3
Virendra Sehwag	Collage Sports Mgmt	Rs. 100 lakhs / 3 years	6

As a result, 50% of the total network revenue for Sony TV this year is coming from cricket alone. Which makes the investment of $255 million worthwhile for Sony, but doesn't do anything for non-cricketing Indian sports.

For the next 6 months, all Indian sports will have to take a backseat to India vs. West Indies series, India vs. England series and the 2003 World Cup. Meanwhile, India's athletes in the Busan Asiad can compete in relative oblivion. Thanks for nothing, Corporate India.

colourful opening ceremony showcasing the rich cultural heritage of South Korea marked the inauguration of the 14th Asian Games, and the millenium's first, at Busan.

Mercurial hockey star Dhanraj Pillai led the largest-ever Indian contingent to the Asian Games. As Dhanraj proudly held the Indian tricolour, the Indian athletes acknowledged the cheers of the crowd while soaking in the electrifying atmosphere at the brand new stadium.

Dhanraj, who has played in 3 Olympics, 3 World Cups and 4 Asian Games, and who was the skipper of the gold medal winning Indian hockey team at the Bangkok Asiad in 1998, was a most deserving choice.

Interestingly, the original choice to lead the Indian contingent was not Dhanraj, but female athlete K. M. Beenamol, India's gold medal contender in the 400 m, 800 m and the 4 x 400 m relay. Because Beenamol was still in training at the National Institute of Sports, Patiala, Dhanraj was chosen in her place.

It is the first time in the history of the Asian Games that all 43 member nations of the Olympic Council of Asia are participating. That includes Afghanistan, which returns to the Games for the first time since the Taliban came to power nearly a decade ago, and North Korea, which is participating in an international sporting event held in South Korea for the first time.

The two Koreas entered the stadium hand in hand just like in the 2000 Sydney Olympics holding the "Hanbando" flag, which shows the map of the Korean peninsula. Korea was divided into North and South Korea in 1953.

Prabhjyot and Dhanraj Celebrate an Indian Goal

he 24th GEW Champions Trophy hockey tournament was held at the 6000-seater Rot-Weiss (Red-White) stadium in Cologne, Germany, from August 31 to September 8. The countries taking part were Australia, Germany, India, Netherlands, Pakistan and South Korea. It was the first time that 3 Asian teams were taking part in the Champions Trophy.

With 14 of the squad of 16 aged 22 or younger, the young Indian team did well to finish 4th in the 6-nation tournament. India had the following match results:

Date	Result	Goal Scorers - India
Aug 31	India 3 - Netherlands 3	Jugraj Singh (22 m) Dhanraj Pillai (39 m) Prabhjyot Singh (67 m)
Sep 1	Germany 3 - India 2	Gagan Ajeet Singh (37 m) Jugraj Singh (63 m)
Sep 3	India 3 - Australia 2	Jugraj Singh (11 m) Deepak Thakur (17 m) Gagan Ajeet Singh (48 m)
Sep 4	India 3 - Pakistan 2	Prabhjyot Singh (21 m) Jugraj Singh (33 m) Gagan Ajeet Singh (52 m)
Sep 6	South Korea 4 - India 2	Dhanraj Pillai (40 m) Gagan Ajeet Singh (68 m)
Sep 8	Pakistan 4 - India 3	Jugraj Singh (12 m) Dileep Tirkey (48 m) Gagan Ajeet Singh (52 m)

The matches of the tournament were the two India-Pakistan matches, one at the league stage (won by India), and the other to decide the 3rd/4th place (won by Pakistan). Fans came from Holland, Belgium and France, apart from the host country Germany, for the two Indo-Pak clashes. There was tight security, as well as segregation of the Indian and Pakistani fans. In a sporting gesture, the players applauded each other's national anthem, shook hands warmly and conducted a joint press conference after the first league match.

Veteran Dhanraj Pillai was outstanding in the first match, and had a hand in all of the 3 goals scored by India. The first goal resulted when Dhanraj single-handedly dodged 4 Pakistani defenders before passing to Prabhjyot who put in the finishing touches. The second, a penalty-corner converted by skipper Dileep Tirkey, was the result of another piercing Pillai run. For the third goal, Dhanraj collected a Dajeet Singh Dhillon cross, weaved past two Pakistani defenders, waited for Gagan Ajeet Singh to move into position before releasing the ball. Gagan drew goalkeeper Ahmed Alam out before tapping home from an acute angle.

The second Indo-Pak match was notable for Pakistan fighting back from 1-3 down with only 12 minutes left, to win 4-3 with a 3 goal burst in 5 minutes. Pakistan thus deservedly won the bronze medal. The only disappointment for Pakistan was that star penalty corner specialist Sohail Abbas could convert only 3 out of 21 penalty corners awarded to Pakistan in the tournament - a below average tally for the country's highest scorer in history. 

Netherlands took the goal medal defeating Germany 3-2 on penalty strokes, after 70 minutes of scoreless regulation and 15 minutes of scoreless golden goal extra time. This was the first ever goalless final in Champions Trophy history.

The final result in the favour of Netherlands can be viewed in the context of these quotes by the opposing coaches: "In every training session we practice penalty strokes," said Dutch coach, Joost Bellaart. "Since the end of the World Cup in March we have not had time to practice penalty strokes," said Germany's coach, Bernhard Peters.

When asked about India's performance in the Champions Trophy, Dhanraj Pillai said, "How long can we come back and just say that we played well. Our fans want results and a medal as a testimonial for our efforts. They are not happy with anything less than that, even if we happen to beat the top teams."

India's Dhanraj Pillai was voted the player of the tournament, Germany’s Clemens Arnold was the best goalkeeper, Jong ho Seo of Korea was most promising player and the top scorer, with 7 goals, was Netherlands’ Taeke Taekema.

The final positions : 1- Netherlands, 2 - Germany, 3 - Pakistan, 4 - India, 5 - Australia and 6 - South Korea. Argentina will replace Korea in the next edition of the Champions Trophy, to be held in Amstelveen, Netherlands, from August 16 - 24, 2003.

The Indian team comprised the following:

Goalkeepers: Devesh Chauhan (Indian Oil), Bharat Chetri (Karnataka)

Backs: Dileep Tirkey (Indian Airlines-Captain), Jugraj Singh, Kanwalpreet Singh (both Punjab), Dinesh Nayak (Tamil Nadu)

Midfielders: Sukhbir Singh Gill (Bharat Petroleum), Viren Rasquinha (Indian Oil), Vikram Pillai (Mumbai), Ignace Tirkey (Services), Bimal Lakra (Indian Airlines)

Forwards: Dhanraj Pillai (Indian Airlines), Deepak Thakur, Prabhjyot Singh (both Indian Oil), Daljeet Singh Dhillon, Gagan Ajeet Singh, Tejbeer Singh (all Punjab), Arjun Halappa, Sandeep Michael (both Karnataka).

Officials: Rajinder Singh (Chief Coach), Narender Singh Sodhi (Assistant Coach), Sampath Kumar (Physiotherapist), Dr. Rajkumar Jaipal (Doctor) and Aslam Sher Khan (Manager)

he International Olympic Committee's Museum is located in Lausanne, a picturesque town on the banks of Lake Geneva in the French part of Switzerland.

The section relating to the 1936 Berlin Olympics contains Jesse Owen's shoes (which won him 4 gold medals) and also Hockey Wizard Dhyan Chand's hockey stick that won India the gold medal in the Berlin Olympics. The note besides the display states that Dhyan Chand always used to play barefoot!

In the memorable 1936 Berlin Olympics hockey final, played before a record crowd of 40,000 spectators, India beat Germany 8-1 to win its third successive gold medal. That remains the largest margin of victory in an Olympic hockey final. The barefoot wizard scored 3 goals against Germany that day.

The Berlin Olymics would be the last Olympics of Dhyan Chand. World War II intervened to prevent any more Olympic appearances of the wizard. Dhyan Chand is to hockey what Bradman is to cricket and Pele is to soccer - an immortal.

ockey Olympian Govind Perumal died of a heart attack at his residence at Nalla Sopara in Thane district on September 17. He was 78.

One of the Khadki naturals who graced the game of hockey, he formed a potent combination with Randhir Singh Gentle in penalty corner situations for Tata Sports Club in the Bombay Hockey League. Perumal represented India in the 1952 Helsinki and 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games, and was known for his uncanny distribution and positioning sense.

Perumal represented Mumbai from 1947 to 1963. After his retirement, Perumal trained many bank teams and amateur clubs in Mumbai, and was a popular figure in hockey circles due to his simple ways and humble nature. Perumal is survived by four sons and a daughter.

Former India skipper Maneypande Somaya talked about Perumal with reverence. "I have not seen him play, but heard about him from my father and elders. Perumal was known as a tough guy on the hockey field, with an ability to control the flow of the game with his ball possession and passing skills, relevant even in today's vastly different astroturf game."

Photograph Courtesy: Bakshish Singh's grand-daughter Tamana Dhaliwal

he Photograph of the Month for October features 1956 Olympian Bakshish Singh Sandhu and his wife Narinder Kaur.

Bakshish Singh was married on June 7, 1953 to Narinder Kaur. Their marriage got delayed due to Bakshish Singh's commitments for Punjab in the 1953 National Hockey Championship played at the Rajendra Sinh stadium (in Bangalore?). This is an extract from a newspaper dated June 5, 1953, the day of the final between Punjab and Services.

"The victory, if gained by Punjab, will be a great moment for their left-back Bakshish Singh. This versatile player, who has played at right-half, inside-left and both positions in the deep defence for his state and the formidable Punjab Police, postponed his wedding so that he could represent Punjab in the nationals.

Bakshish was due to be married on May 20. He had the date postponed to June 6. Now that the final was carried to a later date, due to rains and draws, Bakshish will miss the first day of his wedding ceremony. He will arrive in Amritsar on the morning of Sunday, June 7, the day of his wedding."

That same year, 1953, saw an exchange of visits from the East Punjab (India) and West Punjab (Pakistan) police hockey teams. First the Pakistan team visited India and played matches in Amritsar (1-1 draw) and Jalandhar (0-0 draw). Then it was time for the reciprocal visit to Pakistan. The following is an extract from Balbir Singh Sr.'s "The Golden Hat Trick"

The Pakistani police officers extended a unique concession by allowing Indian players who had wives hailing from West Punjab to bring them along for the tour. The wives of Balbir Singh Sr. (captain), Bakshish Singh, Dharam Singh, Tarlochan Singh and Ram Parkash joined the touring party.

A massive reception awaited the East Punjab team in Lahore. The touring party was lodged in the Police Lines Guest House. A garden party was given in honour of the visiting team at Mitchell's fruit orchard, 30 miles from Lahore. Covers were laid for well over 250 people.

The highlight (or lowlight) of the garden party was that an angry swarm of bees, whose beehive had been disturbed by accident, swooped down on the assembled guests. There was a virtual stampede as men, women and children ran helter-skelter for cover. It was easier for the women who covered themselves with their sarees, but the men without headgear had an harrowing time. The players emerged from the one-sided battle 45 minutes later, a badly beaten bunch.

Bakshish Singh was ready with his wisecrack, "Tough Punjab policemen beaten back by small insects!"

he Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) got a grant of US $8000 in 2002 for their development programme, that includes the national junior training programme, coaches and umpires' clinics, laying of new artificial turfs and various other projects.

The PHF is expected to get a similar grant for 2003, as per an MoU to be signed between the PHF and the FIH during the Busan Asian Games. In fact, there are chances that the FIH may approve its development grant to Pakistan on a permanent basis.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand Hockey Federation (NZHF) made a small profit of $8900 in 2001-2002, compared to a loss of $32,990 the previous financial year (which ends June 30).

NZHF spends more money on the women's programme than on the men's. Expenditure on the Black Sticks women's team in 2002-2002 was $474,855, while the corresponding figure for the men's programme was $462,400.

Sponsorship for the year almost doubled to $723,375 from $382,460 the preceding year. As a result, national team players will be paid a daily allowance of $40 when they are on tour.

The payments started earlier this month when the women's team played at the Champions Trophy in Macau, and will continue for the World Cup in Perth in December.

The chief executive of the NZHF, Ramesh Patel, said the payments were a small reward for the sacrifices made by the players.

"Five years ago we could never have envisaged player payments, but all sports evolve. To get to this stage the teams have had to be successful. With success comes more funding. If the team performances drop and we have a drop in funding we will have to review the payments, but at this stage we have made a commitment to them. The payments will remain performance-based."

FIH President Els van Breda releasing the PHF magazine
Photograph by Ariane Schirle, DHA

he Indian Hockey Federation can learn a thing or two from their Pakistani counterparts when it comes to the dissemination of hockey information. Within a span of 3 months, the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has come out with an official website (http://www.phf.com.pk/), launched in June 2002, and an official magazine (Pakistan Hockey Quarterly), launched in September 2002 in Cologne during the 24th men's Champions Trophy.

The official PHF website starts with an animated Flash introduction and then settles to its home page containing more than 20 links to various features like PHF office bearers, clubs & teams, win-loss record, rules of the game, equipment, and so on.

The website has a section on Pakistani legends, from A. I. S. Dara to Zakauddin. It contains the list of all Pakistani captains, from 1947 - 2000, and also the list of Pakistani Olympians from 1948 - 2000. A useful link gives biographical details of the 2002 Pakistan team members.

The official PHF magazine was internationally launched by the FIH President Mrs. Els Van Breda Vriesman. Speaking on the occasion, Els said that the PHF magazine was a pleasant surprise, and hoped that it would not stop after a few issues as the she knew that how difficult it was to continue publishing a quality magazine. Els added that launching a magazine was not a difficult thing but continuity was far more difficult, and hoped that the PHF would overcome all such difficulties to get it going.

PHF executive secretary, Professor Safdar, invited the world press to contribute to the magazine to help promote the sport and players. Director (marketing) of the PHF, Mr. Shahbaz Kaifi, was also present at the magazine launch ceremony.

It is hoped that the PHF will also bring out the magazine in Urdu, Pakistan's national language, so that more mainstream Pakistanis, rather than just the English speaking elite and foreigners, would be able to enjoy the magazine.

Tamana Dhaliwal from Los Angeles, USA, is this edition's Visitor of the Month. Tamana, who is the grand-daughter of 1956 Olympian Bakshish Singh Sandhu (photograph above), had the following to say to BharatiyaHockey.org:

My nanaji, Bakshish Singh Sandhu, was born on June 14, 1928, in Lyallpur (now in Pakistan). He attended Khalsa College in Amritsar. Bakshish Singh joined Punjab Police from 1948-1961.

Bakshish Singh worked as the District Sports Officer in Amritsar from 1966-67 where he coached Women's Government School, and later coached at Women's College in Amritsar. After this, he took over taking care of the family-run brick factory, until he passed away on September 21, 1970 at the age of 42.

Bakshish Singh left behind his wife and two daughters. His wife, Sardarni Narinder Kaur, spends half the year with her older daughter in Chandigarh, India, and the rest of the year with her other daughter in California.

Thank you for putting up the photograph of my nanaji. My family will be very delighted, especially my nanima, who became a widow at a very young age.  She was never really given much recognition or respect after he passed away, and this will be a great birthday present for her.

t the end of the 2002 Champions Trophy, India and Pakistan have played each other 102 times, in 45 venues, in 24 countries. 29 of the 45 venues have been on neutral grounds. In fact, the first time they played each other in either India or Pakistan was only in the 1978 Indo-Pak hockey series - 31 years after Pakistan was created out of India in 1947. Of the 102 matches played, Pakistan has won 50 times, India 32 times, while 20 matches have ended in a tie.

The disappointment of the 2002 men's Champions Trophy was undoubtedly Australia - World Cup finalist and Commonwealth Games champion. They lost all 5 of their league matches, including a record 1-6 loss to Netherlands. Australia have not lost 4 internationals in a row for more than 60 years.

Even India managed to beat Australia in the Champions Trophy - their first over Australia in eight matches and only their third in the last 25 matches.

In their final match, Australia beat South Korea 3-0 to avoid getting relegated. Australia thus remains the only country to have played in all editions of the Champions Trophy held thus far.