Hockey - A Forgiven Glorifying Sport

Hockey - A sport which put India on this world map. Sometime back, the sportstars and sporting authority in India only dreamt of sending teams for Olympics, a time when the Indian Hockey team used to bring the only Olympic Gold Medal. Yes, a period when Indian sportstars weren't even ready to goto Olympics, the Indian Hockey (courtesy Dhyan Chand and team) team used to win the gold in the Hockey sport, bringing glory to the nation, putting forth country's name in the world map. Hockey's best player so far Dhyan Chand, even was conspired to have a magnet in his bat, that was the extent of his talent. It was the consecutive record of winning 8 Olympic gold that made Hockey the National Game. A game which is considered to have its talent root in India.

All this is history now, does it mean that it should be forgotten. Certain events against Hockey have been disturbing. It started from the Railways team not getting good accommodation facility, it was pathetic to see them living in the old compartments of the trains, the funding for the Hockey team is far less and the most serious the sport being removed from priority list last year. All these have been a consequence of the poor show of the Indian team in the past few years, but that shouldn't encourage disrespect to our National Game. Sahara has been the only sponsor to support the sport else Hockey's name would have been removed from the sporting list also. And now when the team has struck with vengeance and outperformed beating all the teams winning the Asia cup, which is not less than the World Cup as they have got some real good teams from Asia, all they get is Rs.1000 per goal? So with 65 goals scored they get a meager Rs.65000? All this for the great spirit they displayed in each match?

This is not only the state of Hockey but also other sports. In Football we won the Nehru Cup, which itself is an achievement for the Indian Team, and the sad part is most of us donot even know hat Nehru Cup is. I admit it myself. We all love Cricket but Nation does come first and they are also our heroes. Though they haven't played with the best teams in the world, but still they have outperformed to get the title and bring the country glory in their own perspective. All these news made the center page in the news papers but still no recognition. And seeing the importance and credibility given to Cricket, the other sportstars are bound to get demotivated. And it was only after the hunger strike, we see the individual companies recognizing their players. I mean is this required, such provocation to go on hunger strike? It is all upto the us and media to recognize our heroes as it is they who represent us in the world arena, bringing glory to our Nation, to the Indians, to us.