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.