Cork man David Harte is preparing for a unique Asian adventure after becoming the first Irishman to be signed up for the Hero Hockey India League.
The competition, which finally got off the ground last season after years of grappling for jurisdictional power to run it in India, is the richest in the sport.
Timed to coincide with the European winter break in January and February, it is a similar concept to the Indian Premier League in cricket. Six franchises – up from five last season – will compete in an intense, short competition; each played 14 games in just four weeks in its inaugural year.
Goalkeeper Harte, who plays his club hockey with Dutch giants Kampong – currently lying second in the Hoofdklasse – was the 39th players signed up by the franchises at an auction last week, the Mumbai Magicians paying $11,000 for the Ballinspittle native’s services.
He joins a high quality squad that features six Australians, Englishmen Adam Dixon and Simon Mantell and Malaysia’s Faisal Saari.
The “closed bid” format of this year’s auction – in contrast to last year’s which was streamed live – caused some anxious moments for Harte, who wasn’t included in the initial list of purchased players.
“It feels amazing to have been signed up for the HIL a complete surprise and I was really shocked,” he told The Hook.
“The auction/closed bid process was quite strange in that there wasn’t any live stream and even the Twitter updates stopped after round one so I had to wait for another four or five hours before the complete list of signed players was up, all in all pretty nerve-wracking.
“I had kind of accepted the fact I wasn’t going to be bought, which was why I was so surprised to see my name on the list.”
In total, over $1.3m was spent on players with Ryan Archibald ($71,000) and Ramandeep Singh ($81,000) the most expensive new players. The inaugural season was watched by 41 million fans in India and broadcast in 146 countries.
Goalkeeper Harte, who plays his club hockey with Dutch giants Kampong – currently lying second in the Hoofdklasse – was the 39th players signed up by the franchises at an auction last week, the Mumbai Magicians paying $11,000 for the Ballinspittle native’s services.
He joins a high quality squad that features six Australians, Englishmen Adam Dixon and Simon Mantell and Malaysia’s Faisal Saari.
The “closed bid” format of this year’s auction – in contrast to last year’s which was streamed live – caused some anxious moments for Harte, who wasn’t included in the initial list of purchased players.
“It feels amazing to have been signed up for the HIL a complete surprise and I was really shocked,” he told The Hook.
“The auction/closed bid process was quite strange in that there wasn’t any live stream and even the Twitter updates stopped after round one so I had to wait for another four or five hours before the complete list of signed players was up, all in all pretty nerve-wracking.
“I had kind of accepted the fact I wasn’t going to be bought, which was why I was so surprised to see my name on the list.”
In total, over $1.3m was spent on players with Ryan Archibald ($71,000) and Ramandeep Singh ($81,000) the most expensive new players. The inaugural season was watched by 41 million fans in India and broadcast in 146 countries.