Indian Hockey: Journey from Glory to Gloom

 We all know about our national symbols. Lotus is our national flower, Tiger is our nation animal, peacock is our national bird, Ganges is over National River, Jan Gan Man is our nation anthem like wise Hockey (Field Hockey) is our national sports. All these represent our country. There is an uncanny similarity among all these national symbols. Population of tigers and peacock is going down, Ganges is too polluted to stand in, Jan Gan Man is subject to controversies similarly Hockey in our country is also dying. Day by day we are forgetting to care about our national heritage. But if we talk about Hockey then the situation is worst among all. There are several conservation initiatives to curb the falling number of Tiger and peacock and we have several million rupees Ganges cleaning program. At least some body is there to care about them. I fully support all these moves to preserve the symbols of nation importance. But what about our National sports Hockey? Is there any one who can feel the plight of the game and its players? Is there any one who thinks that It’s high time that something should be done to save our national game before it’s becomes a thing of past? Is there any one?

                        It’s tough to say exact phase when the bad days of Hockey started in our country. Some people think the rise of Cricket is the sole reason behind the down fall of this game and few out there think that the international governing body, its biased rules and policies are which went against the Asian hockey. Whatever the reason may be but the truth is that today hockey is critically ill and is surviving on ventilator. It’s hard to believe that a country which once ruled the entire world in this game has now become so insensitive toward this ailing sport that it does not want to do any thing to revive it. At least I can’t see any such thing happening.

                                    Indian Hockey team is the first non European Country to be part of International Hockey Federation (FIH). What exactly that mean? This means that in spite of being the most experienced out side Europe we are lagging to those novice players who got recognition much later than us. Many late comers like China, Korea and Japan are doing brilliant day by day in this sport. If we see in Oceania region then we have Australia which is now the flag marcher in the field Hockey. We have won total 11 medals in Olympics (8 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze) highest by any country in terms of gold medals still It’s such a turnaround that today we are struggling even to get an entry into the Olympics. It’s really pitty.

I always believed that not only sports but in every walk of life whether its films, business or politics, we needs a hero or idol which inspires others and boost its popularity. We had a hero in Dhaynachand and that was the time when we were on top. and if you ask me then I would say after him only Dhanaraj Pillai was the only player who sustained for long and gave us a hero in form of him. There were other notable players also but no one had succeeded to mach the charisma of these two. On the other hand if you see we have almost an endless list of Cricketing Idol. 83 World cup win not only gave us a cricketing Hero in form of Kapil dev but also enabled a great interest of people in Cricket. We had Sunil gavaskar, Bishan singh Bedi, Jadeja, Ganguly, Srinath, Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag, Yuvraj, Harbhajan , Dhoni and of course Sachin Tendulkar. All of them not only achieved personal milestone but also brought the Indian cricket from no where to top. Players like Sachin Tendulkar are no more related to cricket only. He is an idol to follow irrespective of someone’s background. These cricketers have created a huge interest of people in cricket. Reason behind the rise of cricket in India might be a subject to debate but one thing is  non debatable that these players have done some thing which was unprecedented in Indian cricketing History. Person like Sachin has went ahead to showcase the talent which the entire world acknowledge and respect. And the so called the big big money in Indian cricket was not there always.  On the other hand if we see many brilliant talent in Hockey had an unfortunate end of there carrier. We had Dhanraj pillay a very bright shining star who really had an unfortunate end of his carrer at least 3 to 4 years earlier than Due, Gagan Ajit singh who had to finish his carrer early though I feel he had a lot of hockey left in him, we had Viren Rasqina who quit the Hockey so early, we had Dilip terky leaving Hockey earlier, Jugraj singh who met an unfortunate accident and had to call of his international carrer, Devesh chauhan who disappered  somewhere. Apart from them we have Prabhjot singh, Deepak thakur, Sandip singh who periodically comes and goes out of the team. All of them are the victims of the rulers of the game.

To great extent all credit goes to the governing body. How can the country forget the KPS gill, for what he did to Hockey. A former DGP of Punjab once credited with having brought the Punjab Insurgency under control, had done a great damage to the Hockey. His dictatorship and authoritarian nature killed the players trust. Corruption in his tenure damaged the Indian Hockey financially. But He was not alone, in fact no one could do this alone. He had a strong backing in Government. It is only after a lot of hue and cry from former player which led the government to act. And what an act it was. Instead of bringing any positive change, the government pushed the Indian Hockey in the darkness of anonymity. Yes Indian hockey is now struggling to have its identity. We have two governing body in Hockey, IHF led by the same Corrupt KPS Gill and other one being HI(Hockey India). The FIH is not ready to accept two governing bodies for the same game which is quite logical. But neither IHF nor HI is ready to drop there control over the game. No one is thinking abut the welfare of the game instead every one out there is thinking of there own interest. So in spite of FIH having many future tours and programs designed to keep India in the center, to revive the game to give is due glory, nothing is materializing. This cat fight between HI and FIH and the inability of the government to clean this mess, is rally giving a very wrong message to the players, hockey lovers and prospect investors in the game. The same government, who curbed every agitation against its authority, is not able to act to the agitation of the players and hockey lovers towards the nonsense of HI and IHF. It’s really fishy and surprising to everybody. This clearly indicates the government’s lack of will power. In a time when government has forgotten all the moral ethics just to keep in power, how are they supposed to act sensibly in a matter which is of no political potential to them. As far as people are busy cheering cricketers, film stars and foreign soccer players how are they supposed to act?

I consider the media equally responsible for not doing enough for the cause of the game. The Bottom line is that every one out there is to make money. All these news media channels, have enough bandwidth to show the dancing cat, cat fallen in bore well, all the witch crap but they have no time to show or discuss  Hockey. It’s so disgusting when you have to search the entire web just to know the result of the match your national team had played because no nation sport or news channel has bothered to cover the game.  The people follow what comes before there eyes. And by going the power of media, I am sure if the Hockey gets it due coverage, even one tenth of what cricket is getting, we can see a dramatic surge in interest of the people in the Hockey. And as the viwership increases money will follow. It’s a full round circle. After all, every one is fed of too much cricket. Too much focus on cricket will not only saturate the viewer but also do a great damage to the game too. We can see its sign now.  A fare chance should be given to every other sport to prosper. Every player put a lot of effort to bring glory to the game and the country. We should acknowledge their efforts. Only this way we can inspire the future generation to look beyond cricket.

But for all this to happen, first government will have to act firmly and sensibly to bring the idiotic act of the HI and IHF to an end. Being the national game, government should make it compulsory to broad cast every game Team India plays at least in and around India. The Media should also understand there responsibility and they must think above the profit and loss equation for the sake of this sport and its heritage. They should understand that as the game improves, viewer ship will improve and they will get there due. But initially they will have to act like a NGO.

We can not simply abandon our nation sports because we are not doing well. This is just not the way to do it. We love our nation and we love our national sports.

Players should also understand their responsibility. It’s not always the way to grumble about everything. They must understand the basic theory that they will have to produce some Heroes for the world to follow. They will have to do the unprecedented. Every revolution demands the sacrifice. Players have to sacrifice some monetary interest and will have to set some example. I believe the infrastructure and governance in Pakistan hockey is also not satisfactory and we are on the same board in this department. Still they are playing some brilliant hockey and producing brilliant talent. They have the players playing since long. They have their own inspirations.  The Indian players will have to understand that constant performance and wins is the only thing which will make the country to notice the Hockey. What massage we give to nation when we fail to even qualify for the Olympics? What message we spread when we come, insignificant 7^th or 8^th in any prestigious tournament? They should understand it requires a lot to be world class. No matter however we grumble about the governance but the fact would remain same the only way to beat the Holland Germany or Australia is by playing the game the way they play. Hockey is not going to come back on clay, its going to be faster and faster. The soon we adopt it more we will benefit.

Players should inspire from the past glory and learn the future tactics of the game.

I also urge the players to drop their personal difference and egos. You would not get any thing but eventually damage your own career and Indian Hockey. Show some discipline for the sake of the game. I some time read some disciplinary action being taken against some bright players. They don’t understand hockey lover have a lot of hopes from them without them the team India is depleted. This hampers ours chances to do well in big matches which in turn put us far behind and the entire struggle to revive hockey looses its gravity. More than people being unite for the game what matters more is unity of the players.

And at last its a great responsibility of the platform like “Chak de Indian hockey” to constantly fight for the game. Spread awareness spread the interest.

I hope one day Hockey will come out of gloom to gleam.

I love my country I love Hockey.

Sanjeev Shukla

Bangalore.