The Indian hockey teams at the Asian Games in Japan have caught the attention of all with spectacular early wins. What has also shone brightly on the blue turf of the Gifu Prefectural Stadium is the colour of the Indian jersey.
On Sunday, the national teams wore orange for their campaign-opening fixtures against Uzbekistan (women) and Indonesia (men), and returned in the same-coloured kits for their second preliminary round victories over Indonesia (women) on Monday and Sri Lanka (men) on Tuesday.
The national teams staying with 'saffron' is a surprising development, considering Hockey Indian President Dilip Tirkey had said ahead of the Games that the traditional 'blue' would make a comeback as the first-choice kit.
“The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) had asked us to give the preferred choice regarding the team kit colours and Hockey India selected blue as the first choice for the Indian team's kit. Orange will be the second choice,” Tirkey said before the Games.
The former star player had been upset when Hockey India introduced the 'saffron' jersey for the World Cup held in the Netherlands and Belgium in August, and claimed that he had not been consulted. Former skipper Viren Rasquinha called it 'embarrassing'. “The legacy & identity of the Indian team has always been BLUE. I wore the Blue jersey with pride for many years. Fans want to see our Indian team in blue. What is the logic of orange?” Rasquinha posted on X in July.
Hockey India's logic for promoting 'saffron' during the World Cup was that it gave better visibility against the blue turfs that are increasingly used at international tournaments. The game's international body, FIH, permits both blue and green surfaces.
The question now is whether the hockey teams will stick with ‘saffron or have they permanently ditched the 'blue' colour that has traditionally been associated with India. The colour choice has also drawn political attention because saffron is associated with the ruling BJP. However, the decision to dip the national hockey jerseys in 'saffron' itself has not been explicitly linked to politics, yet.
The Indian women's team crushed Uzbekistan (19-0) and followed it up with a 17-1 crushing of Indonesia. The men's team drubbed Indonesia 13-1 and posted a thumping 16-1 win over Sri Lanka on Tuesday. Indian women face Thailand tomorrow while the men face the first real test when they take on South Korea on Thursday.
