When The Going Gets Turf

PANAJI: Hockey faces a new ground reality when the Olympics get going in London some 12 days from Saturday.
The blue turf, a distinctive and attractive feature at the Riverbank Arena where the matches will be played, hasn’t been without comment or controversy.
It appears that adjusting to the colour has been an issue with players asking for adequate practice on the surface which has also warranted the use of a yellow ball — all within the ambit of TV coverage which, promoters claim, has improved by leaps and bounds because of the new colour combo.
It’s just the colour this time. Thirty-six years ago it was the surface itself. The artificial surface made its advent at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, changing the face of the game for all time.
Synthetic pitches changed the look and feel of hockey. It also changed equations with past-masters India and Pakistan floundering on the plastic surface that brought in power and speed at the expense of skill and suppleness. Robust and ready, Germany, Netherlands and Australia became the new dominant nations.
And just to think, it was a quirk that brought in that change. Jittery Olympic organizers weren’t confident of a proper surface being prepared in the wake of severe Canadian winters and took recourse to American Football’s innovative artificial pitches. A quickly arranged exhibition three years before the Games, with the then FIH president Rene Frank an enthusiastic spectator, solved the problem. Frank decided then and there that this was to be the pitch of the future and Montreal hosted a memorable tournament.
For the record, New Zealand came from nowhere to win the gold medal, shocking Australia 1-0 in the final. Pakistan finished with the bronze and India disappeared from the podium, finishing lowly seventh.
Pitches have evolved since the first AstroTurf brand was used. From little more than a carpet that peeled off skin from many a sliding tackler, manufacturers now present near grass-surfaces (especially for soccer). The hockey world, though, is still divided about whether plastic pitches are a curse or a blessing. Europe, especially the Netherlands and Germany with their hundreds of pitches, revels on the surface going by results at major competitions. India and Pakistan, however, bemoan the resultant adverse change in fortunes — not least the dwindling number of children taking to the sport for want of an artificial surface in the neighbourhood.