All around the world, sports bodies are experimenting to tap into the craze for live competition. New leagues are being launched, formats are being tweaked, and rules are being simplified to create fan-friendly, high-energy versions of traditional games.
Now, Hockey Victoria is taking that experimentation a step further. Its soon-to-belaunched franchise in the Hockey One league, the Melbourne Cobras, will be built not around Australians, but the fast-growing Indian community in the state of Victoria. The Cobras will be the league’s eighth team and the second from Victoria, after Hockey Club Melbourne.
This could well be among the first attempts in world sport to design a professional team around an immigrant community.
Hockey Victoria has multiple reasons to go that way. First, South Asians are the “fastest growing community in Victoria.” Indians alone account for nearly 400,000 Victorians and are expected to grow to around one million (10 lakh) in the next 15 to 20 years.
Second, Melbourne is a highly saturated market for sports franchises. “In a city of just 4.5 million people, there are 56 franchise teams,” Hockey Victoria CEO Andrew Skillern said in an interaction with ET Sport. To stand out, Hockey Victoria decided to tap into the Indian diaspora, an audience yet to be targeted by professional sports leagues.
“For hockey, which has a very proud Olympic history, to be really relevant in that saturated market, we made a clear decision two years ago that we wanted to create something that would make us globally relevant so that we don’t have to compete with the other 56 teams for our slice of the sponsorship,” Skillern said.
The team will first be launched in Punjab in October before being unveiled in Melbourne at the end of the two-month-long 2025 Hockey One season in November.
Among a squad of 25, eight will mandatorily be Indian or Indian-origin players. Skillern and his team have been in discussion with multiple stakeholders in India, including Hockey India (HI), Hockey India League (HIL) franchises, players and coaches. They are keen on bringing top international players like India captain Harmanpreet Singh and former captain Manpreet Singh on board, but acknowledge that the packed international calendar and domestic commitments could make it difficult.
They are also looking at emerging talent and recently retired players as possible signings, which would probably be less complicated. Indian players have featured in the Australian league in recent years. Shilanand Lakra turned out for HC Melbourne last season, while Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Rupinder Pal Singh represented both Canberra Chill and HC Melbourne after retirement.
“We’ve been in discussions since last February,” Skillern said. “Those conversations have helped us understand that we’re going to have to look at per-game type contracts so that Hockey India has the flexibility to work around commitments, and we know that we’re not going to have those players for two months.
“It’s still a work in progress. I think the players are really excited about this and, despite everyone’s different motivations, we’ll continue to talk with Hockey India to make sure this is done in the right way and doesn’t impact their plans.”
Unlike the HIL in India, there is no established payment system for players in the Australian league. But to woo Indian players, Hockey Victoria is planning contracts that will ensure some remuneration.
“The marquee players will have a per-match fee and, on top of that, a 75% revenue share in player sponsorship,” Skillern said. “Culturally, in Australia player sponsorship is very big. For HC Melbourne, we had 60 companies last year that sponsored players. The players can have up to four sponsors… and then a share in merchandise.”
The base payment will vary player to player depending on their experience, achievements and popularity.
But how are the Melbourne Cobras so confident of paying players when the other seven teams in the league haven’t managed that in six years of existence?
The answer lies in growing trade relations between India and Australia. Businesses want to be associated with the initiative and secure a first-mover advantage in the market.
“Of the seven franchises, only three are profitable. HC Melbourne, for example, is not profitable at the moment, but it’s an investment at this stage of development. It’s only four years old. We have a 10-year aspiration that it washes its face. This thing (Melbourne Cobras) will wash its face from year one because our sponsorship profile is going to be three or four times what we have got for HC Melbourne,” Skillern said.
Skillern has a big vision for the Cobras. He wants to take them global, like the IPL franchises are operating in different leagues, from South Africa to US and West Indies to England.
“We plan to have multiple teams under this franchise, playing multiple tournaments around the world. No one’s doing this in the world of hockey. They’re all singular teams that play in one competition. But we want to have a franchise that has teams playing in multiple leagues. We’re talking about global hockey franchise,” Skillern said.
Now, Hockey Victoria is taking that experimentation a step further. Its soon-to-belaunched franchise in the Hockey One league, the Melbourne Cobras, will be built not around Australians, but the fast-growing Indian community in the state of Victoria. The Cobras will be the league’s eighth team and the second from Victoria, after Hockey Club Melbourne.
This could well be among the first attempts in world sport to design a professional team around an immigrant community.
Hockey Victoria has multiple reasons to go that way. First, South Asians are the “fastest growing community in Victoria.” Indians alone account for nearly 400,000 Victorians and are expected to grow to around one million (10 lakh) in the next 15 to 20 years.
Second, Melbourne is a highly saturated market for sports franchises. “In a city of just 4.5 million people, there are 56 franchise teams,” Hockey Victoria CEO Andrew Skillern said in an interaction with ET Sport. To stand out, Hockey Victoria decided to tap into the Indian diaspora, an audience yet to be targeted by professional sports leagues.
“For hockey, which has a very proud Olympic history, to be really relevant in that saturated market, we made a clear decision two years ago that we wanted to create something that would make us globally relevant so that we don’t have to compete with the other 56 teams for our slice of the sponsorship,” Skillern said.
The team will first be launched in Punjab in October before being unveiled in Melbourne at the end of the two-month-long 2025 Hockey One season in November.
Among a squad of 25, eight will mandatorily be Indian or Indian-origin players. Skillern and his team have been in discussion with multiple stakeholders in India, including Hockey India (HI), Hockey India League (HIL) franchises, players and coaches. They are keen on bringing top international players like India captain Harmanpreet Singh and former captain Manpreet Singh on board, but acknowledge that the packed international calendar and domestic commitments could make it difficult.
They are also looking at emerging talent and recently retired players as possible signings, which would probably be less complicated. Indian players have featured in the Australian league in recent years. Shilanand Lakra turned out for HC Melbourne last season, while Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Rupinder Pal Singh represented both Canberra Chill and HC Melbourne after retirement.
“We’ve been in discussions since last February,” Skillern said. “Those conversations have helped us understand that we’re going to have to look at per-game type contracts so that Hockey India has the flexibility to work around commitments, and we know that we’re not going to have those players for two months.
“It’s still a work in progress. I think the players are really excited about this and, despite everyone’s different motivations, we’ll continue to talk with Hockey India to make sure this is done in the right way and doesn’t impact their plans.”
Unlike the HIL in India, there is no established payment system for players in the Australian league. But to woo Indian players, Hockey Victoria is planning contracts that will ensure some remuneration.
“The marquee players will have a per-match fee and, on top of that, a 75% revenue share in player sponsorship,” Skillern said. “Culturally, in Australia player sponsorship is very big. For HC Melbourne, we had 60 companies last year that sponsored players. The players can have up to four sponsors… and then a share in merchandise.”
The base payment will vary player to player depending on their experience, achievements and popularity.
But how are the Melbourne Cobras so confident of paying players when the other seven teams in the league haven’t managed that in six years of existence?
The answer lies in growing trade relations between India and Australia. Businesses want to be associated with the initiative and secure a first-mover advantage in the market.
“Of the seven franchises, only three are profitable. HC Melbourne, for example, is not profitable at the moment, but it’s an investment at this stage of development. It’s only four years old. We have a 10-year aspiration that it washes its face. This thing (Melbourne Cobras) will wash its face from year one because our sponsorship profile is going to be three or four times what we have got for HC Melbourne,” Skillern said.
Skillern has a big vision for the Cobras. He wants to take them global, like the IPL franchises are operating in different leagues, from South Africa to US and West Indies to England.
“We plan to have multiple teams under this franchise, playing multiple tournaments around the world. No one’s doing this in the world of hockey. They’re all singular teams that play in one competition. But we want to have a franchise that has teams playing in multiple leagues. We’re talking about global hockey franchise,” Skillern said.
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