India captain Harmanpreet Singh might have become the most expensive player at the Hockey India League Auction 2024 but his price of Rs 78 lakhs stand tiny against the rich IPL buys that we do every year. The Hockey India League makes a return after a hiatus of seven years.
The League had to stop in 2017 due to busy calendars and financial hurdles. Now with India touching new heights in the Olympic circuit, this league further provides a platform for the next generation of players to come forward and take the Indian hockey ahead. It gives the Indian players the opportunity to rub shoulders with some of the finest players as the league has received an exclusive window for the last week of December and the first week of February for the next 10 years.
The auctions took place across two days on October 13 and 14 but seeing the most expensive player and two-time bronze medallist Harmanpreet being picked for just Rs 78 lakhs, asks a question about the huge gap between the auction prices in Hockey and a league like IPL.
There is no doubt that IPL enjoys a whole level of different viewership and market size. While Hockey has given the greatest joy to the Indian diaspora, Cricket holds a different command. Even in the first IPL auction in 2008, the 10th most expensive player was Robin Uthappa, who stood at $0.8m (Rs 6.72 crore on current date), much more than what the most expensive Harmanpreet was bought in 2024 in the hockey arena by the Soorma Hockey Club.
Hockey viewership was much lower in 2016, as per a report in BARC India, Hockey India League's Avg. Normalised Impressions'000 were only 88, much lower than the Pro Kabaddi League, which had 1487 such impressions.
But many things have changed since then and the viewership must have increased by many folds. India have now won two bronze medals in 2020 and 2024. They are set for more glory in the next Summer Games. While it might take a very long time for someone to be picked for as many as Rs 24.75 crore, the price of Mitchell Starc at IPL 2024 auctions, the return of HIL promises that if everything goes in the right direction, Hockey will become even more popular than now.
