Indian Ice
An ice hockey team from… India shall go to an international tournament in Kuwait, after successfully raising 2 million rupees, the equivalent of around £21,500, through crowdfunding. India’s ice hockey team has participated in six competitions in the last six years but on each occasion raising funds to pay for travel and accommodation has been a struggle. This time the Ice Hockey Association of India appears to have found a solution thanks to a social media campaign that resulted in the total sum required being raised after just 10 days. The majority of the funds came from three businesses which together contributed 1.6 million rupees. The remainder was raised from the public in contributions ranging from just 50 to as high as 65,000 rupees.
Just in case the reader thinks the editor meant field rather than ice hockey, the winter sport was introduced to India by the British in the northern hill town of Simla almost a century ago. Admittedly, it has taken a while to catch on but ice hockey is a fast growing sport in India. Today the country has 2,500 registered players compared to just 300 in 2002. Who knows if the team do well at the tournament in Kuwait, maybe raising funds next time will be a whole different puck game.