Delhi Wave Riders: The dominant force of HIL

Hockey India League or HIL is the official domestic franchise tournament in India. The league is organized by the Hockey India (The official governing body of Hockey in India), and the International Hockey Federation. The inaugural tournament occurred in year 2013 in India, and the league received great response from the hockey lovers in India. Among the teams participating in the Hockey League India, Delhi Franchise in Hockey a.k.a. Delhi Wave Riders is one of the most talked about team.

As the name makes it clear, the hockey franchise Delhi represents the city of Delhi in the tournament. The name of the team comes from the company that won the sponsorship rights for the team, which is Wave group.

The Wave Group paid the highest money to win the naming rights of the Delhi Franchise in Hockey. Wave group is now the sole sponsor of the Delhi team for HIL for the next seven years. The players for each franchise team were selected by the support staff of the franchise team in an open auction. Delhi Wave Riders purchased the Indian hockey team captain and the star player Sardar Singh for $78,000. This is the highest amount paid to any Indian player in the first season of HIL.

The Delhi Wave Riders team plays under the captaincy of Sardar Singh, while Ajit Pal (former Indian national hockey team) joins the team as the chief advisor of the team. Mr. Ajay Kumar Bansal is the coach of the hockey franchise Delhi. Delhi Wave Riders has the record of highest number of consecutive wins with 11 wins until they lost to Uttar Pradesh team franchise in the 12th game. The auction for the franchise rights was held in September, 2012. Wave group is a big business group with many industrial sectors under its subsidiaries, such as real estate, retail businesses, cinemas, etc.

In the first ever Hockey India League tournament, Delhi Wave Riders performed amazingly as expected and won 10 games out of total 14 games, two of them resulted in drawn matches. The team clearly dominated the league matches and reached to the final game of the tournament for the title of inaugural HIL winner. However, sadly they lost the final match of HIL season 1 to Ranchi Rhinos and came out runner up of the cup. In the entire tournament, Delhi Team scored a total of 41 goals in 14 matches, out of which highest 7 goals were made by Rupinder Pal Singh.

Revival of Indian hockey

There was an era when public used to play games and sports in order to revive their mind in their idle time, but nowadays these sports events have turned out to be competitions on national as well as on the whole global platform. Hockey is one of the oldest sports in the world. It was discovered 120 decades ago and has now become a national and international game of India. Formerly, hockey was played among the people to expand their hostility skills and in order to become a mighty warrior, but in today's era it has become a zeal of many individuals and this competition has drawn in many countries.

Hockey was exposed and developed in India by the British and then afterward when it became the national sport of India; it crazed the Indians with a lofty number of spectators and fans. However, with passing time this national sport lost its spectators and fans. Ultimately was replaced by current favourite sport, cricket. With time cricket gained many fans and audience, which made them, a religion of India, whereas the hockey team India was somewhere elapsed.

There also came a time when the cricketers were treated as gods while the Indian hockey players did not even obtain an introduction to the public. Nevertheless, with time this situation is changing by the current hockey players who are trying their best to increase their performance and at the same time have come along with an increased number of spectators along with huge fans from India. The present hockey players are raising the position of India in the global level hockey and simultaneously trying their best to triumph as many matches they can.

The present hockey players of hockey team India have altered the method of playing and have come in conjunction with high degree techniques that have the capability to a triumph maximum number of games. After a long phase hockey is earning viewers and fans because of the performance of these hockey sport person and even got back the real attention that a nationwide game deserves. There was a time when the Indian hockey player like Dhyan Chand, Leslie Claudius etc made hockey the heartbeat of the country and now new players like Sandeep, Danish Mujtaba etc are once again raising the same craze among people and are trying to take hockey to new heights.

Hockey is India’s national game and every Indian should support this game. Its survival depends on your encouragement. The cheering will encourage Indian hockey players play at their best and soon Indian hockey will retain its old status and position back.