BY TERRY MADDAFORD
In New Delhi
Is hockey heading towards a timeout system as used in American Football and basketball? Maybe.
Halves also reduced to 20 or 25 minutes? Again, possibly as the sport seeks to overcome the down time which threatens to become a blight on the game.
International Hockey Federation communications manager Arjen Meijer touted the possibility at a seminar here yesterday when asked what is to be done about time wasted at penalty corners.
He agreed that umpires and administrators have to look at a situation which threatens to get out of hand.
As it stands, umpires are reluctant to stop the clock while teams prepare to take and defend penalty corners but it has become noticeable at this World Cup that any amount of time can be taken in preparing for penalty corners early in a match but later, when the losing team protests at time wasting, umpires have signalled for the clock to stop.
With up to a dozen penalty corners in a match -- and allowing between one minute and up to 1m 15s for each -- a fair chunk of playing time is lost.
Couple that with the provision for teams to now call for video umpire decisions, and a supposed 70-minute game is fast becoming anything but.
“One option I see would be for halves to be played over say 25 minutes but that would be 25 minutes of actual playing time,” said Meijer. “Like in basketball, the clock would stop every time the ball went out of play or there was some other stoppage. We have that now with penalty strokes so why not extend it?”
Timing is an issue.
It was revealed at yesterday’s seminar that at the last World Cup the time for each supposed 70-minute match varied between 75 and 82 minutes. So far at this tournament that has stretched out to between 90 and 105 minutes which is putting pressure on officials who have scheduled matches to hit off just two hours apart..
FIH officials pointed out that for the great majority of games it is not an issue and because of that their rules board is reluctant to make a change across the board.
They feel, instead, that at the big tournaments where video appeals are allowed and teams are using protective equipment in defending penalty corners, that there might need to be a tweaking of the regulations to provide for timeouts and, at the same time, lengthen the gap between matches.
“In not stopping the clock when goals are scored we are missing a great opportunity to promote our game by showing the celebrations,” said Meijer. “We have to explore every possibility to showcase hockey.
“The tournament in India has been a huge success,” he added. “There is a near 100 per cent awareness of the World Cup in Delhi. The viewing figures for the India - Pakistan match on the first day were the equivalent of what would be expected for an ODI between India and Sri Lanka. This event has been a massive challenge for the FIH commercially but it has been a great success.
“India brings in more television revenue for our sport than any other country. Most of our revenue comes from a very few countries. It is difficult to sell hockey in most countries but it is even more difficult just to sell hockey.”
Of a suggestion that there had been allegations of match-fixing in the Pakistan-India game, FIH executive board member Aaron Sher said the international body was aware of potential betting on games and that they had looked into it and monitored it as best they can.
“There are some concerns across all sports about things like this,” said Sher.
Meijer added that at this time the FIH was not aware of any match-fixing in that opening day clash.
ENDS
