Asia Cup hockey: No Pakistan, a sleepy venue, with Nitish as its biggest star

Pakistan’s pullout and an unheralded venue in the historic but sleepy town of Rajgir, Bihar, have raised enough curiosity about the state of affairs in the ongoing Men’s Asia Cup for hockey.

While Harmanpreet Singh’s men have kept their date with the Super Four stage in the eight-nation tournament, an interesting sub-plot seems to be the way it’s being used as a promotional vehicle for state chief minister Nitish Kumar.

It’s election time ahead in one of the country’s most politically sensitive states — with polling scheduled to take place in phases in October–November and the veteran JDU leader seeking his fifth mandate as its helmsman. Kumar’s presence in anything to do with the high-profile continental event is almost jarring now, with full-body photos of him splashed all over — from the team buses plying between the venue and the hotels, to billboards inside Rajgir International Stadium, to his gracious form overlooking traffic intersections and pasted on hot-air balloons even.

It was CM Nitish Kumar who unveiled the tournament’s logo, its mascot and the trophy — much like his erstwhile Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik had the spotlight trained on him during marquee sporting events in Bhubaneswar. Kumar travelled to Rajgir to inaugurate the Asia Cup on 29 August and then took a lap of the stadium ahead of the India–China opener, waving at thousands of spectators for close to 15 minutes.

Such brazen displays of power are nothing new in India, of course — be it the faces of the concerned state’s chief ministers or Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself.

The Nalanda district, under which the axis of the historic towns of Rajgir, Nalanda and Bodh Gaya falls — and which Kumar hails from — is not exactly known for its hockey culture, however. Rather, the district’s claims to fame are its ruins, its Buddhist legacy and the new Nalanda University founded by Dr Amartya Sen.

And yes, there might be questions on whether Bihar is trying to follow the Odisha model by latching on to hockey as a political picker-upper, but the establishment has rebuffed any such suggestions.

Speaking to a regional TV channel on the opening day, Dilip Tirkey, president of Hockey India and a distinguished Olympian, said Rajgir established its candidature on its own strengths, rather than for political reasons.

“After Bhubaneswar became the hub for the sport, we noticed a few years back that there are a number of other states interested in hockey but not getting a chance at hosting international tournaments. Soon after Rajgir hosted their first-ever Women’s Champions Trophy hockey last year, we offered the event to the Bihar government and they were very keen to come on board,” Tirkey claimed.

There is no gainsaying that sport, ever since the beginning of millennium, been a great tool of soft power — and the state of Bihar has been a laggard of sorts in this aspect ever since the bifurcation and formation of Jharkhand.

“The tournament’s arrival in Bihar underscores the state’s growing prominence on the global sports stage,” Kumar said in a press release for Hockey India sometime back.

Another senior Hockey India official, currently stationed in Rajgir, refused to share an update on the fans’ responses and the progress of the event — but the crowd picks up to a healthy level during evening matches when the temperature subsides a bit.

Replying to a Indian Express query about the upcoming elections being hyphenated with the Asia Cup, Raveendran Sankaran, director general of the Bihar State Sports Authority, said: “Sport has become a priority for the state of Bihar,” before adding: “If this tournament had happened in haste, you can say it’s because of elections. But we have been doing it for over two years now.”

Point taken; but there is also the lurking question around the stadium — along with the other infrastructure that has come up at a prohibitive price tag of Rs 600 crore. They should not end up as the state’s proverbial white elephants...

But as to that, and CM Nitish Kumar’s political future, only time can tell!