Hockey team of India is all ready for the 2014 Hockey World Cup

For the longest time, people believed that Hockey was the national sports of India. This belief stemmed from the fact that the hockey team of India was the best performing field hockey team in the world for several decades and won 8 gold medals in numerous Olympic events over the years. Players like Dhyanchand became a household name across the nation and are still revered as some of the most iconic and well known sport personalities in India. Recent clarifications have revealed that India does not have an official national sport.

The popularity of hockey, which had been decreasing for some time following the popularity of cricket, is on the rise once again. It has become common now to find photos of hockey players plastered all over the newspapers, the most recent example being the media coverage they received after the team qualified for the Hockey World Cup which will be held this year.

The period of 1920-1980 is considered the golden period of Indian Hockey. During this time, the men’s hockey team of India won 8 gold medals, 1 silver medal, and 2 bronze medals in the Olympics.  After 1980, the hockey saw a sharp decline in India and the team did not even qualify for the Olympics held in 2008. The women’s Indian Hockey team began performing better after 2000, and they won the gold prize in 2002 Commonwealth Games, and then went on to win two more gold prizes in international events.

Indian Hockey has been twisted in scandals and the Indian Hockey Federation had to be dissolved in 2009 after charges of multiple counts of corruption were brought against its directors. A new body was formed which was made up of former hockey player and both men’s and women’s team have been improving since the formation of this new body, called Hockey India. Many changes have been made in the way hockey is played in India, and Hockey India has recently started Hockey India
League, the hockey equivalent of the highly popular Indian Premier League event for cricket. Interest in the sport by government bodies as well as private corporations has increased and Hockey India is now recognised by the International Hockey Federation. One can only hope that the Indian hockey team will take its place as the top team in the world once again, and photos of hockey players will once again become a common sight on newspapers, magazines and TV screens.

HIL Making Hockey Popular Across Different Sections

A sport like hockey would never lose its place in our hearts. The emotional bonding we share with it is unparallel to any other sport this country has ever participated in. We’re proud of our feet in hockey and it is one thing which no one is ever going to take away from us. Hockey India has taken some bold steps to popularize it in times when cricket is what the whole nation is talking and thinking about. Hockey League India is a premium league where top national and international players play for respective clubs.

Hockey Leagues in India are getting popular with several top players participating in it. It is a new concept however the business model continues to be the same as followed in other sports leagues around the world.

Sharing Success Stories of Players to Attract Masses and Classes

There are certain sports which represent you as a society and nation. People have been playing, following and supporting these sports from generations. They do not even know for how long they’ve been doing it. There was not much missing in terms of social appeal however lack of efforts pushed it to the last in the list of sports to be followed.

A sporting event like Hockey League India provides an opportunity to aspiring young players to watch the favorite players in action. It would start the rebuilding process by making people aware of the talent we’ve and support it requires to break into the top half of table. It is also a great opportunity to make children learn and know more about the game.

Famous hockey player names bring people back to the hockey field

The Indian Hockey League attracts talented players from different parts of the world. You would find all big hockey player names included in the list. It is one of those events which can ignite the passion and make people fall in love with the game all over again.

These events prove to be the right kind of investment model for governing bodies like Hockey India to gain the attention, apart from the commercial values it has. You can imagine the kind of reaction it would receive when some of the most famous field hockey players take part in it. It is only going to make people proud of the game they love and increase the chances of parents taking children to the hockey field and sharing success stories with them.

The growing popularity of Hockey Leagues in India has brought the attention back to one of the most celebrated sports. It has won us the love and respect of the world.

Hockey is Indian national game

Hockey league in India is a professional league for the hockey game. It is organised by India. India is going to play with Germany in final round n hockey world League final match. Hockey is the national game of India. It is the most popular game in India after cricket. At the start of 1928 up till 1956, the Olympic gold medals would always won by India till one of the finest Indian hockey players left the game. Now the migration of new comers in this game is giving some hope but the original tradition is lost.

Recently, few wins in this game has given some hopes to India. The celebration is going on for hockey match which is grabbing a lot of attention because of some great players in hockey team. Hockey was chosen as national game because of the talented players in India made the tradition of winning this game against any other country. India played a lot of matches and won each one so it was selected as a national game for our country.

One of the biggest achievements of India was in the year 1964 when India won gold medal in Tokyo Olympics. Perhaps we can do better in this field still now, but we need better coaches and better players. We also need government support for financing and giving players more facilities to play this game at their fullest. It is also a good idea to give training for our young talent as they have enough capacity to capture the rules and they do have great stamina which can make their interest for their country national game. The Indian hockey team is first non-European team to be a part of international Hockey Federation. This added great pride to our nation. A great Indian hockey player name to remember is Dhyan Chand who gives inspiration to Dhanraj Pillay.

Dhyan Chand is also awarded as third highest civilian award as Indian “Padam Bhusan.” He is known all over the world because of his great talent in the game. He is still remembered by most Indians when it comes to the challenge of winning the national game. Leslie Claudius is another well-known player who has won many medals for our country and is regarded as one of the finest players of the Indian hockey team.

Hockey- the forgotten Sport of India

Every nation aspires to inspire us with a sense of patriotism and has in some ways succeeded and has more often failed in it. Every nation has its own identity, a national flower, national animal, national sport and so on. India has been on a wave ride with regards to the hockey team of India. During the initial Olympics the Indian team was the undeniable champions and masters of the playing field.

There are a number of photos of hockey players who demonstrate their prowess which is inspiring and sad; inspiring because it shows the team at the height of its power and sad because people have forgotten their roots. It is a sad state of affairs with everyone being concerned with the loss of our heritage nowadays and the social propaganda of the destruction of our culture it’s sad that we let our national animal go extinct and our national team go unnoticed. For those of you who are wondering, the captain’s name is Sardara Singh by the way.

It will not be untrue if it is said that half the people cannot identify names using photos of hockey players when shown to them. But ask anyone and they can tell you the names of every cricket player including the substitutes and sometimes even recognize the ball boy.

But as with every dark cloud there is a silver lining to this one too. The youth are becoming increasingly aware of our folly and are taking steps to correct it. Recently many institutions and celebrities had started campaigning for the hockey team of India during the tournament in order to increase the popularity of the game and even if it does not return to its former glory. We hope that at least it will be able to attain a shade of its magnificence.

It is in our nature to take things for granted and now there is an even more need for its awareness than ever before. Let us remedy our mistakes. Let us save the tigers, embrace our culture, remember our pride and depend not on others or their playthings. We have been straying from a path that we never knew existed and now it is showing glimpses of itself and is giving us perhaps the last opportunity to remedy our faults.

Hockey: the lost pride of India

Anything that symbolizes a nation becomes a part and parcel of its pride, honour and name. Taking the same theory, hockey, the national sport of India is a part and a way to serve India’s national interest. Starting from 1920 to the 1950s, this was the golden era of Indian hockey with a craze that united whole of India and bound it together in a single game. In this period, India gave phenomenal legends like Dhanchand and Roop Singh to the world of hockey. It was during this time that India captured 8 Olympic gold medals along with many major world events.

But this trend is diminishing today and with it, it is destroying India’s image as it falls in international hockey to an all time low of 9th position. Many reasons can be attributed to this fall starting from a few stated below.

1.    Emergence of cricket:
 

With the emergence of Cricket especially in the men’s format, the wonder of major hockey player names has seen a fall in fan following. The rise of cricket lords like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, M.S. Dhoni or even the present day Kohli and their lustre of shear class has overshadowed the charm of hockey.

2.    The IPL fever:
 

Cricket was hovering above all sports, but the emergence of the IPL has made the game even bigger by taking it to a different level and producing new star.

3.    Lack of sponsors:
 

The sponsors have also fallen for the enhancing presence of cricket and ignored other major sports like hockey leading to a lack of infrastructure and support for these sportsmen. No sports can sustain without continual support of finance and infrastructure either from the corporate or from the government and hockey, at present is getting neither of those. Even the brand ambassadorship of major MNCs has replaced hockey player names with the new celebrities or cricket stars.

All has not ended for hockey with trials being made at every front to bring back the sports to its past grandeur with steps like organising hockey world cup in India and hockey league India. Other than the major club league, the domestic competitions are also receiving minor corporate sponsorships right now.

The hockey league India is considered to be a major step due to its grand success. So let’s not forget our past glory in hockey and try to increase our hockey skills to give respect to our national sport and great nation.

HHIL : An attempt to rejuvenate hockey

The Hero Hockey India league is about to begin its new season early in the next month. The competition was announced earlier this year after it received a huge response in its inaugural season. It is a sports event cum entertainment package, power packed with vigor, glamor, sportsmanship, and a rush of adrenaline. The game is organized, following the team of IPL cricket tournament. It was an attempt to popularize the once famous game of hockey that has lost its glory in India.

The commercial aspects of HHIL would help to pump in the much needed resources in the game, and would reclaim the lost interest of the public. The event consists of six teams amongst which, Ranchi and Delhi franchise in Hockey India league came out to be the best teams, with first and second rank respectively. The big conglomerates own these teams and secure players for them through auctioneering. The event is expected to stir the crowd and rise up the fever, just like the old times.
 

The last match of the previous season played between hockey franchise Delhi and Ranchi was breath taking. It was a tough competition which the public thoroughly enjoyed.

India, the past unrivaled champion in hockey, lost its uncrowned kingship after the revolutionary changes in world hockey took place. The natural grass field was replaced by synthetic turf and the Indian Sports Foundations were too sluggish to respond to this change or to implement it and train our champions accordingly. It took them more than a decade to wake up and brush off the dust from the gleaming history of Indian Hockey.

In the present scenario, after the rejuvenated attempts of Indian team in Olympics and the recent bronze in Sultan Azlan Shah Cup; hockey called for some attention from the public. Thus, Hockey India stepped forward and launched the HHIL in collaboration with leading business groups such as Sahara India (Owners of UP franchise) and Wave Groups (Owners of hockey franchise in Delhi) in India. Hence we have our hopes pinned up, that if hockey got back the lost attention and resources, maybe we can recreate the past magic.