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Russia, surviving in the land of ice hockey
Till 1980s, formerly USSR, the region dominated in field hockey, apart from being a force to reckon with in ice hockey. The USSR won a bronze medal at the Olympics in 1980, which was followed by a silver medal at the European Championships in 1983.
Arkadii Kondratev, the media manager of Russia Hockey team in Bhubaneswar seems to be one of the very few people in their entire dressing room who can speak in English. After the pre-match press conference, where he sat down as the translator for coach Vladimir Konkin and captain, Denis Shchipachev, Arkadii sums up the scene of field hockey back in his country in a single sentence - “Someone asked me what is this... (laughs) what is ‘field hockey’?”
Till 1980s, formerly USSR, the region dominated in field hockey, apart from being a force to reckon with in ice hockey. The USSR won a bronze medal at the Olympics in 1980, which was followed by a silver medal at the European Championships in 1983. But things changed after the disintegration of the region as ice hockey took over as the preferred form of the sport, while field hockey completely dissipated.
Russia, over the years, became a five-time world champion in ice hockey, and even managed one bronze, one silver and one gold at the Winter Olympics. It grew into the 2nd most popular sport in the country, only after football. As per current world rankings by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), Russia are placed at the 2nd position, only next to Canada, which largely remain their prime competitor in the sport.
The country holds an international ice hockey league, Kontinental Hockey League (or KHL), which has 24 members at the moment. It is widely believed to be the 2nd premier professional ice hockey league in the world, only next to USA. The league has the second highest average attendance in Europe and Asia with 6,397 spectators per game in the regular season, as per the recent data released by the IIHF. KHL, in 2019, will be available for viewers in 32 countries, across Europe, Canada, the USA, China and Central Asia, according to a recent report.
In field hockey, on the other hand, Russia have never even qualified for the World Cup or the Olympics. The side is currently placed at the 22nd position in FIH World Rankings, and little is expected out of them in their Olympics qualifying matches against India on Friday and Saturday. Arkadii hopes that things could life up for field hockey after the two matches against India, which is about to set history in the region.
“We are working on popularisation of the sport. This is the first time a field hockey match will get a broadcast on Russia sports channel. It will also get a telecast in nearby post-Soviet countries,” he says.
Another big hurdle for the team is the budget available to them, which is, in the words of Arkadii, “4,000 times less than ice hockey”.
“Not only ice hockey, basketball, volleyball, soccer, their budgets are much higher. It is like a child right now, field hockey in Russia,” he adds.
