4 min learnUp to date: Sep 9, 2026 05:20 AM IST
The Indian hockey groups will revert to the enduring blue jersey on the 2026 Asian Video games after taking part in the boys’s and ladies’s World Cups in saffron and white jerseys. The return to custom comes after the federation copped flak from many hockey fans and former gamers. Indian hockey groups have largely been in blue because the nation made its Olympic debut in 1928, barring a number of remoted situations.
The Indian Categorical has learnt that regardless of the controversy and criticism, a senior Hockey India (HI) official wished to push for the saffron jersey earlier than president Dilip Tirkey intervened. In an e mail change beginning August 6, the HI official shared saffron as the first color and white as the second for the boys’s and ladies’s groups earlier than Tirkey requested to maintain blue as the first color and saffron because the second.
“We by no means stated it (the saffron jersey) was everlasting. The Indian hockey workforce will sport the blue jersey. Nothing is everlasting as we had seven colors to select from,” Tirkey advised this paper on Tuesday.
The Indian hockey workforce react throughout their Hockey World Cup classification match vs Belgium. (Hockey India)
The jersey color for the current World Cups in Belgium and the Netherlands had turn into a speaking level earlier than the tournaments.
“I need to say that Hockey India has performed many good issues for India. However that is embarrassing. The legacy and identification of the Indian workforce has all the time been BLUE. I wore the Blue jersey with satisfaction for a few years. Followers need to see our Indian workforce in blue. What’s the logic of orange?” former India captain Viren Rasquinha had posted on X.
Tirkey stated there have been seven choices so far as the color of the jersey was involved.
“Proper now, there may be nothing everlasting in terms of jersey color. We’ve got used saffron prior to now and we are able to use it once more however on the Asian Video games, we will probably be utilizing the blue jersey once more,” he stated.
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Chaotic change
The change to saffron for the World Cup prompted inner wrangling in Hockey India with letters flying forwards and backwards amongst high functionaries of the federation.
The logic put forth in favour of a saffron jersey was that it will assist gamers establish teammates on the blue turf. It was argued that the blue jersey on the turf of the identical color might hinder coordination.
India Ladies’s workforce pose through the Hockey World Cup. (Hockey India)
Hockey India stated that gamers have been consulted earlier than the change. Nonetheless, 5 completely different gamers had advised this paper that that they had no prior inkling on this matter.
The gamers The Indian Categorical spoke to, throughout the boys’s and ladies’s groups, denied being a part of the method.
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“I wasn’t requested or consulted. It’s not true,” stated considered one of them, who requested anonymity. All 5 stated they didn’t communicate for the complete group, nevertheless it means that the proposed change was not widespread data.
The drama deepened additional when Tirkey himself claimed that he wasn’t consulted. The HI president alleged that he was saved at the hours of darkness until the eleventh hour. He sought clarification from board members and criticised the method that adopted.
“On the outset, I want to make it clear that the difficulty into account is just not merely the color or design of a taking part in jersey,” Tirkey wrote. “The matter considerations the decision-making course of adopted for a change involving one of the recognisable symbols of Indian hockey, the authority underneath which such a choice was taken, the consultations undertaken, compliance with Hockey India’s governance framework, and whether or not acceptable institutional processes have been adopted.”
Subsequently, the Indian girls’s workforce completed fifth – their highest end on the World Cup in additional than half a century – whereas the boys’s workforce had a disappointing outing, coming again with an eighth-place end.
