Hockey – National Sport of India

Against

Before I start quoting my views, I would like to ask a question that why do each Indian give their young kid a Cricket bat to play why not a hockey stick instead? If people were so pessimist about our national game then it would be a herculean task to uplift them, so that they can feel proud in telling about their national game. Every parent wants their son to be next Sachin Tendulkar and then we complain that we never get more than one medal in Olympic Games. I think if anyone is to be blamed for the dire state of hockey then its “WE” – Indians no one else, next comes the media, government and cricket.

The recent debacle in Hockey and the rising popularity of cricket has made few crazy people to suggest the above but that is just a ridiculous suggestion, nothing more. I don’t think we should change the national game just because we lost some matches. We should not conclude that the days of hockey are gone; the government should pay attention to this and provide them with proper facilities to regain their presence. I don’t know what is the criterion for selecting national game but certainly not this. Hockey is the game here evolved since ages unlike cricket, which was adopted from foreign soil.

Already cricket is religion in India and none of the sports is as famous as cricket in India, we all know we Indians are so zealous about IPL, ICC Cricket World Cup, ICC T20 World Cup and all other ICC events. On the other hand events like Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, Hockey World Cup and other hockey events are unable to even make their presence felt among the masses. Therefore, hockey should be encouraged not it should be pushed back.

If national game is changed then it may affect the performance of hockey players. Even today also we all know that Indian Cricket team captain is MS Dhoni but most of us are unaware about national hockey captain. We are unaware of the hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand but we are aware about Sunil Gavaskar. We have forgotten when India won the hockey world cup, but we know that we won the cricket world cup in 1983.

No today we change our national game, tomorrow national anthem, then pledge and it will go on.

Game is seen for fun and I think hockey is a lot of fun as is cricket. Game doesn’t bring sensation. Media and people make the game popular. For a fact India is having 1/6th of World’s population and only one game is popular. Whereas in other countries like China, USA and Russia all game have equal importance and popularity, so if someday cricket become unpopular in India then should we again look for some other game.

If we start losing matches in cricket also like we lost to minnows Zimbabwe recently and our consecutive failure in ICC T20 world cup after the debut victory in 2007 should start to lessen our interest in our cricket also.

Our hockey players only get chances to know how modern hockey is played only when they go out of the country. Forget about German and Holland, the kind of facility even Pakistan players get are much better than Indians. .If got a chance then one should go and see how players are playing hockey. Only one school in Orissa has produced many great hockey players (including Dilip Tirkey) and that school it shelf has no proper playing ground, no coach etc and that is the story everywhere hockey is played throughout the country.

If we just start changing national game just because of huge money and familiarity like we get for Cricket. Looking at the picture closely till now what cricket have given is just a one world cup only whereas on the other hand hockey have won the 8 Olympic golds and many more silver and bronze.

So on what behalf we change? Tell yourself winning a world cup among 20 odd playing nation is important with the whole nation backing up or winning a medal among all the countries taking part in Olympics is big achievement?

It Is High Time We Changed The National Sport Of India – Part II (Coming soon…)

Tags: Cricket, Dhyan Chand, Government, Hockey, India, Media, National Game, National Sport