India’s Hockey teams set for Asian Games in white despite promise of blue jerseys

NAGOYA: At the send-off ceremony for the Indian contingent, Hockey India president Dilip Tirkey had sought to put the jersey controversy to rest.“For the Games, the team will wear blue. That’s the primary colour. There’s no confusion, everything is clear,” he had said. But when the Indian men and women take the field against Indonesia and Uzbekistan, respectively, the primary colour may well be white.In the build-up to the FIH World Cup, the Indian teams’ jerseys had come in for sharp criticism after they moved away from the iconic blue and opted for saffron. The switch was attributed to a ‘scientific’ reason — better sighting of the ball — but it made little difference to the men’s side, who finished a disappointing eighth.At the Asian Games, the promised return to blue has proved more complicated. While Tirkey confidently announced that the teams would be back in their traditional colour, he realised only later that the predominant colour of India’s first-choice jersey was actually white, with light blue on the shoulders and neck, and splashes of gold and orange on the front. The shorts and skirts are also in a lighter shade of blue. The second-choice kit is saffron.“All kits for the Asian Games are routed through the IOA and, by the president’s admission, blue was the colour suggested by Hockey India. But the shade of blue and how it is used is up for debate,” a source said.The choice of colour reportedly did not go down well with Tirkey, prompting an effort to get new kits made.“Given how controversy-plagued Hockey India has been over the past few months, the president does not want the focus to shift away from the teams. That’s why he tried very hard to get new sets of jerseys. But given that they have to come through the sponsors, and the women’s team left soon after the send-off, it was always going to be a race against time,” the source said.Get the latest Sports News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.