David Harte gets taste of big time in Mumbai

It has been interesting to read the blog of David Harte, probably the first Irish player to experience a celebrity-type culture in hockey. The Irish goalkeeper this week arrived in Delhi to play in the Hockey India League. Harte was drafted, or, bought by the Dabur Mumbai Magicians.

Among Irish players, only Stephen Martin or Jimmy Kirkwood will have attracted the same sort of attention when the two Ulster boys won the gold medal at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul with Britain.

Spur
But Harte's experience should act as a spur for the Irish squad recently selected to take part in the International U21 tournament in Moseley.

The chance to play for a month among the best players in the world where players are treated like sports stars and the games shown on television, sounds like an opportunity.

A video has been released by the organisers, which is already being shown on television all over India. All of the games will be televised live and also exported.

The teams are scattered over the Indian sub-continent so the travelling for matches will be immense. But the concept is sure to change the face of high end hockey. If players are paid handsomely to go to India for a short season in the European winter, many will jump at the chance. The only catch is those players have to be high profile.

British players Mark Gleghorn, Simon Mantell and Harte's room-mate, Simon Dixon, are on the same team as Australians Joel Carroll and Timothy Deavin as well as a host of Indian internationals.

As Harte says in his Day 2 Blog: "Off to bed now with an early start in the morning for a photo shoot and short filming for the network broadcaster Star Sports, who are showing all the games live here in India and around the world."

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