Handball may not be an indigenous sport in India, but just like Kabaddi, it’s a sport that’s played at a large scale at the local level. However, what separates it from the others is that handball has not yet found its footing domestically and India is yet to make a significant impact in the sport globally. Despite having achieved some glory at the South Asian Games in the past, there is still a long way to go for India to become a handball powerhouse and conquer the global stage.
In this exclusive interview with SPOGO, Mr. Randhir Singh, Joint-Secretary of Handball Federation of India speaks about grassroot development, India’s potential in handball, Indian Handball Premier League, overcoming challenges and future goals.
Q 1) According to you, what needs to be done at the grassroots to encourage more children to play handball?
At the grass-root level, there is a lot of input that is missing and we are trying to establish it. The basic thing is that the resources for handball are all available at the school level. When we connect grassroots in Mumbai at schools we have a fantastic base but at the colleges, there is a disconnect in Mumbai right now. The teams that get created at the grassroots (school wise) get disconnected as they join different colleges. There are many colleges that don’t really promote sports; only a few do. For a child who has built himself up for 7-8 years at school but when it comes to the important age where he is in college is where the disconnect happens. The government needs to rethink its policies so that students who are from sports are given admission to colleges that promote sports like Khalsa College, Podar, Thakur College, etc. We should have some sort of a priority set up that these children get admitted to colleges that promote sports. They might be lacking a few percentages because they have given time to sports but that should be considered. This is the disconnect as far as Mumbai is concerned but when we talk about the larger part of the country I feel the schools are not that strongly built as far as their team is concerned. Probably they have their academy outside of school and there is a disconnect when they join colleges. We need a uniform policy across the country, it should not differ from state to state.
Q 2) How much potential do you see in India for the sport and handball and why?
When we compare and see the potential of India in comparison to the countries that are a powerhouse in handball there is hardly any difference. We (a team from India) have been travelling to Europe for the last 20 years, when we look at children from our country and theirs, we really don’t see any difference. We perform really well and we have won many times. Our under 12, 14 and 16 have done really well. When we take them to Sweden, Denmark, Spain, France or Austria, we see exceptional performances. The base of the Indian handball is really really strong if you look at the grassroots. When we look at the senior or even the junior teams, they are very good but what we lack is in terms of infrastructure and playing conditions.
Normally, when we start handball in India we play on natural soil, we play outdoors on grass or mud, but, the actual handball is played indoors on turf. Even when we play during the European summer we play on artificial grass. Here in India, artificial grass concepts are now coming up. There are some academies or places where you can hire such grounds and take your team for practice. The actual game is mainly played indoors and the conditions indoors are completely different. The game situation is also different as players play with glue, our players when they go for international competitions like Asian Games using glue is permitted. That gum makes a huge difference. When I play without glue, my power, direction and speed are different and with glue it is different. Until and unless all these parameters are looked into I don’t think we will get the result that we expect.
As far as the coaches are concerned, we do have good coaches and potential in players but the infrastructure is missing. The infrastructure is really costly, just one artificial turf will cost you around a crore apart from the land and the infrastructure. We need support from the companies. In Mumbai, there is only one indoor stadium and that belongs to the university. Our vision is limited to one sport when we build an infrastructure but it (our vision) should be broad. Mumbai should have at least 30 to 40 indoor stadiums not just for handball, as indoor stadiums can be used for multiple sports. This is something where the government needs to support, where the local administration needs to support. Of course, private companies can also play a major role by initiating a program through their CSR funds. The association and federation needs to think differently by marketing this sport. Marketing is something that is lacking.
Q 3) What are your expectations from the Indian Handball Premier League? Do you believe it can gain the attention of the masses despite the ongoing pandemic?
Handball is one of the fastest sports in the world, almost as fast as ice hockey because there is a goal being scored every minute and sometimes even two. There is an attack and counter-attack and that keeps the audience on the edge of their seats. Maharashtra started the first league and they were the pioneers of a handball league. The president Mr. Ravi Gaikwad who was recently linked with the Legends Cricket Tournament. He is the one who brought this dream of starting an Indian handball league and he was the one who helped bring it to reality especially in a city like Solapur which obviously was not anybody's first choice but we did whatever we needed to do to make the dream successful.
However it proved to be successful and we went live on Doordarshan and gave us the far out reach that we needed into the rural parts of the country but now we also need the bigger channels to be covering us in order to get popular. Kabaddi for example was a sport of the rural area and now it belongs in a more urban category all thanks to the coverage and exposure it received. The sport also had associations and federations that were genuinely committed to the vision of what they wanted the sport to become.
Having said that handball is an action packed game, if it is pushed and promoted by a successful sports channel and receives the backing and exposure it needs, I am sure that it will attract a huge crowd and go mainstream. We need to attract a crowd to receive the attention and to set the standard for handball.
Q 4) What are some of the challenges faced by aspiring handball players in the country? What is the Handball Federation of India doing to eliminate those challenges?
Challenges will always be there regardless of what you are doing and at what level you are doing it at. We as the Handball association have done a lot for the players in this country. We have provided basic infrastructure to some states and we have provided job opportunities for the players in Railways, Police department and the major sectors. We are working towards helping our players get work in departments such as the electricity board or the central excise and customs.
When I was in college I remember that even banks would have their teams. We don’t see that anymore. They have stopped pursuing teams. That is something that could be revived if we put some effort through the federation and if we can get it to be a requirement through the authorities. It is extremely important for sports people to be provided with job opportunities to reward their efforts and to give incentive to improve their performance level.
Most players start their handball training in schools and their coaches are usually from a physical education background, so empowering them and educating them about the sport is an aim for us. We want to host educational workshops or upgrade programmes for people in such positions so that they are more aware of the exact requirements of the sport and that will allow us to contribute to the performance of the players yet to come. Nurturing a sportsperson from a young age and guiding the child in the right direction is important to the future of the sport. We will be able to see the progress of the child from a young age. How do you recruit someone for tennis? You check to see if they have strong shoulders and endurance and you look for stamina. We will be able to see all that from grade 1 and we will also want to watch their coach to progress along with them. As time passes we would like to place specialised coaches that have professional experience in schools to coach students that are doing well and give them the opportunity to learn from someone who has state level or national level certificates. They will then adapt well to the sport and the skills required. We will also have the opportunity to correct the players’ techniques because if that is not done before the age of 13-15 then that becomes their style. Once that happens a player can not reach their full potential because they can not adapt anymore.
Early nurturing and skill correction is critical to the future of the players and that would serve as a massive push in the right direction. We have already started to see schools hiring sport specific coaches for handball but that is only happening in a very few regions such as Delhi or Bombay but it isn’t so prevalent everywhere else. What we need is for the players to bring in medals and trophies from well recognised events such as the Olympics. Even then the viewers and organisations start charging towards it a few months in advance but for the players the journey starts with their earliest training and preparation; it is all the work from there on then that contributes to their performance.
Q 5) What are the future goals of the Handball Federation of India? How do they plan to achieve them?
The big goal is ofcourse hosting our own handball league and it is already on the cards for us. It was supposed to happen in 2020 but all of it had to be put on hold because of the pandemic. It will serve as a major step forward.
Other than that, we have our own federation with almost 70% of the employees being former players and they all have amazing insights and suggestions. We plan to put them to good use once normalcy returns. At present we are working towards the future of the sport and we are not sitting idle. In 2020, we brought in an international speaker to come and guide our coaches and referees to promote fair play and to set good refereeing standards and their psychological preparation before each game.
All of this leads us to gaining more audience and finding success as a sport. We are conducting a series of workshops to promote everything that will push the sport forward. We have big plans because today onwards the international handball week has started and the president has mailed and instructed all the associations and federations to host small games, competitions and workshops. Each and every sports unit will be contributing something towards the progress of handball in India.
We will also send a presentation of the compilation of all our work to the International Handball Federation and in this way we will maintain a bond amongst the players and with little steps we intend to better the sport. We now have a young president and vice president and they have certain ideas for us moving forward so that will be good for the sport.
