The Cold Shoulder to Indian Ice Hockey

The Indian Ice Hockey team pays to play for its country. Each member contributes in excess of 20,000 INR to participate in tournaments abroad. Those that can't don't get selected regardless of their talent.

'Most of us are working. They pay by themselves. Some of us our students. Our parents pay for us. Most of the times, some really talented guys are not able to pay for training camps. Then they don't participate in tournaments. Only because they don't have enough money' said Stanzin Nangyal a Forward with the Indian Ice Hockey team.

So, 20,000 INR goes out of the pocket every time a player represents his country in International Ice Hockey tournaments. In contrast any player of the Indian Cricket team is paid 2 lac INR every time he takes part (on the bench or in the field) in the shortest and least paying format of the game, a T20 international. Sure Ice Hockey and Cricket in India are a far worse comparison than even chalk and cheese. But they're still both sports. The athletes in both teams are still representing their country. So shouldn't they're be the minutest of balance of trade?

The Coach of the Indian Ice Hockey team does not get paid. In fact, he has shelled out personal cash and donated personal gear to members of the team who couldn't afford it.

'I also run a non profit called the Hockey Foundation and we bring a lot of equipment to India and we donate it to local clubs in Ladakh, Delhi, Maharashtra. We have given the children equipment to get them on the ice. The only way to be a good adult is to be a child at heart' said Adam Sherlip, the Coach of the Indian Ice Hockey Team.

Asked if the government is allowing the children to just play, Adam answered 'They are uninvolved. I don't think the government has a feeling either way'.

At the time of writing this piece, the Indian Ice Hockey team is practicing in an Ice Hockey rink which is about one third the size of the international arena where they will actually be competing come the 18th of April in Kuwait. Never mind the fact that they woke up at 4 am to travel 1.5 hours to train in a substandard rink. Never mind the fact that the rink is ironically, on the 6th floor of a Gurgaon mall. Never mind the fact that the athletes only have the early morning hours to practice as the venue has to be available later in the day for what really pays the bills - entertainment functions and the quintessential way in which sports is looked at in India, skating as a fun outing.

But how can one say never mind to the fact that just 5 hours from New Delhi, in the Capital of Uttarakhand, Dehradun, lies a state of the art and India's only international standard Ice Hockey rink? It has been lying shut since 2012 because nobody seems to be committed enough to find a way in which the yearly running cost of more than 30 lac INR can be recovered.

So why would a New Yorker come to India to Coach a team without pay, with an apathetic government, no adequate training facilities, and no funds to train kids who are shelling out cash from their own pocket to play the game they love?

'Hockey is a game of challenges and to be the underdog is often sought after in Hockey. For me there is no greater underdog than the Indian Ice Hockey team and the Indian Ice Hockey Program. Culturally it is not popular, it is unknown, facilities are unavailable, equipment is unavailable, I don't get paid, I have language difficulties but then that challenge is the appeal' said Sherlip.

90% of the Indian Ice Hockey team is made up of athletes from the region of Ladakh. The passion for the sport in the region is as much as it is for cricket in Bombay.

'The International Ice Hockey federation does a development camp in Finland every year open to all countries. Not just India or Asian countries. The first slide in the power point presentation as they showed over there is a slide of people playing hockey in Ladakh and people sitting on trees in minus 35 degrees watching a game being played and that is the only thing fueling this association. We have no money for the last 8 years'' said the Director of the Ice Hockey Federation of India, Akshay Kumar.

After a sustained 2-day social media campaign and an NDTV story the Indian Ice Hockey team has managed to inspire many to donate the moneys needed to travel and participate in an Asian Level tournament in Kuwait later this month. But don't expect them to win. They have only managed one victory in more than 30 international games and that too against Macau. So, in a country where only a winner is granted comforts and the essentials to succeed, what chance do a few kids from Ladakh have?

What will shake the megalomaniacs running Indian sport out of their slumber?

What will feed the passion of the next generation of Ice Hockey lovers who just want to play?

After hearing about a donor calling and promising all the required funds needed to travel for the tournament in Kuwait, Coach Adam Sherlip quipped 'Maybe today we'll have something other than Bananas, we've had a lot of those in the last few days'. During practice the only energy boost/luxury the Indian Ice Hockey team could afford was a banana each.