Can the new Hockey India League replicate IPL’s success?
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Bengaluru: Dilip Tirkey remembers the evening of 13 January 2005 like it was yesterday. Tirkey, then India’s hockey captain, created history at the Gachibowli Stadium in Hyderabad.
Clad in the Hyderabad Sultans’ sky-blue jersey, he led his team against the red of Sher-e-Jalandhar. This was the Premier Hockey League (PHL)’s opening act. “I feel proud because hockey ne rasta dikhaya (hockey showed the way)," Tirkey told Mint in a telephonic interview.
The PHL sowed the seeds of India’s transformation into a nation of franchise-based sporting leagues, such as the near-$16 billion Indian Premier League (IPL), which launched three years later in 2008. In the four editions of the PHL (2005-2008), Turkey twice led his teams to the title–the Hyderabad Sultans in 2005 and the Odisha Steelers in 2007. Later, in the first incarnation of the Hockey India League (HIL), he was a mentor of the Kalinga Lancers.
In 2017, he would again exit the HIL as a champion, albeit from the dugout. Now, as the president of Hockey India, the governing body for hockey in India, Tirkey faces a new test: the revival of HIL. Last Friday, the league took a big step forward with the announcement of the franchise owners for the men’s and women’s editions.
In the men’s competition, the teams will represent Chennai (owner: Charles Group), Lucknow (Yadu Sports/JK Cements), Delhi (SG Sports and Entertainment), Kolkata (Shrachi Sports), Odisha (Vedanta Group), Hyderabad (Resolute Sports), Ranchi (Navoyam Sports Ventures), and Punjab (JSW Sports). Four of these owners, including Shrachi Sports (Kolkata) and SG Sports and Entertainment (Delhi), have taken up teams in the women’s competition. JSW Sports will own the Haryana
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