The Indian hockey team's sudden switch from the blue kit of their national team to a saffron-coloured one for the upcoming Hockey World Cup has taken on a whole new meaning. Dilip Tirkey, Hockey India's president, has now called for a detailed explanation of the decision-making process by all senior office bearers and Executive Board members. The colour switch has already drawn the wrath of top sports figures such as the former captain Viren Rasquinha and former Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik who said the history of the team and of what makes it such a blue colour is inseparable from the colour.
Tirkey’s frustration was exacerbated when he found out he was entirely unaware of the huge uniform redesign and hadn’t been consulted before this was made and implemented. As Tirkey wrote in an internal email that he had to contend with not the choice of saffron itself (a proud color of the national flag) but with the secretive and unilateral way he was made. And a decision of this significance and of a country’s greatest sporting team, with so much to represent and represent, should have been debated and vetted by the elected leadership and the Executive Board before being implemented, he said.
Tirkey had defended the kit change in media interviews as a pragmatic decision taken by players and support staff to make them visible on blue turf, yet from his internal communication we can see a clear lack of internal oversight. Aware that the sudden change created a lot of controversy and political confusion, Tirkey initially supported the narrative publicly in order to shield the team and keep the focus on World Cup preparations. But pressure from external sources (including the Odisha government) forced him to take immediate action on the internal level.
In issuing separate directives to Hockey India Executive Director Commander Srivastava, Tirkey instructed all Executive Board members to write a detailed explanation of the whole episode. The report should specify what happened and what was the reason behind the colour change of the jersey, who made the call, what the process was, and with whom the officers or committees were involved. The directive also asks whether any formal consultations were made with the President, the Executive Board, former international players, etc. They should be done by 6.00 p.m. on 28th January, 2019. The mounting administrative friction raises the prospect of a broader review of the country’s governance in the national sports organisation as the team is going to be taking part in international competition in the future.
