Field Hockey – I Actually Kind of Like the Sport

I remember when I was in high school, our football season happened to coincide with the women’s field hockey season.  So after training, my teammates and I would sometimes loiter on the side of the ground to watch the girls run around with these massive sticks hitting a heavy object around.  It was quite intriguing to watch however I never really got into the sport.

Fast forward about 18 years and one of the owners of the Delhi hockey franchise called the Waveriders invited my friends and I to watch their match against the Ranchi Rhinos.  The tickets we were offered were VVIP and somehow we found that our seats were right next to Bollywood Actor John Abraham, like literally seated on a couch next to him. 

I must say that we thoroughly enjoyed the match. Not only did Delhi win 2-0, but the game was fast, technically interesting and the crowd quite passionate.  Yes, my overall experience was enhanced by the fact that we were sitting on a leather couch next to a Bollywood star, the halftime dinner was unbelievable (pizza and biryani) and the weather pleasant, but honestly even without all of these perks I still would have enjoyed my experience watching professional field hockey. 

I recommend that more Delhiites go out and support the Waveriders as I can confidently say that anyone who likes watching football live will find some positive from their field hockey experience.  If you do plan on going, just do your best to get your hands on some VVIP tickets though, as the hospitality is quite impressive.  




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3 Cities, 3 Football Academies

Image
Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to visit a few of the top youth football Academies in India.  It’s always interesting to see first-hand some of the blood, sweat and tears football administrators are investing into the future of the sport in the country.  Not to mention, I love experiencing different cultures, norms and idiosyncrasies in each place I visit (there are many).  I won't get too deep into my personal adventures and challenges of traveling through West Bengal and Punjab in the insanely hot month of May.  I'll need to save those for another blog.   I've included the places I’ve visited with some pictures. Pailan World School (Kolkata) http://www.pailanworldschool.com/ Workers putting in artificial turf for the new FIFA Youth Academy Chandigarh Football Academy http://chandigarh.gov.in/dept_sports7.htm The hostel where the CFA players live YFC Rurka Kalan (Rurka Kalan, Punjab) http://yfcrurka
Read more

Liverpool International Football Academy Coaches – Ray Curtis and Michael Rice

Image
The last half of 2013 was one ongoing conversation about the proposed partnership between Liverpool Football Club and our client DSK Group.  We all knew that only good could come out of this relationship, however we also knew that the level of good would be contingent on the coaches which Liverpool FC selected to represent the Academy in India.  This point couldn’t be hammered home any harder as I’ve seen countless projects fail in India due to the international club’s inability to identify the right type of coaches to make the trip to India. It’s not that these coaches lacked technical expertise or coaching ability, actually that’s never the case, it’s that they lacked a positive attitude and patience.  I actually wrote a post about this which can be found a few months back.  The coaches selected to run the Liverpool International Football Academy DSK Shivajians, Ray and Michael, were handpicked by a trusted member of the Liverpool FC international programming staff.  He had alr
Read more

Dreams Do Come True - International Book Tour

Image
It was March 2020 when I started writing a book about my eventful career journey and the philosophy I chose to apply as I made decisions along my professional pathway. It was the early days of the pandemic, and my wife and I were staying at a friend’s beautiful farmhouse in Lonavala – a quaint hill station two hours’ drive from Mumbai. During those days, I would wake up early, exercise, chant while walking in nature, make a cup of coffee, sit in one of the comfy chairs facing a nearby mountain, pull out my laptop, put on my headphones, turn on my favourite tunes and start typing.  I relished the process of taking the memories, beliefs, insights and lived wisdom that resided in my head and heart and excitedly placing them onto the Microsoft Word document. It was therapeutic, exhilarating and addicting – creating something that did not exist before. Thanks to the online Masterclass course on how to write non-fiction led by renown author Malcolm Gladwell that my wife purchased for me for
Read more