The revival of Indian Hockey

Hockey in India had gone through various phases. From the single dominant country prior to the 1950s, India went almost out of the picture in the early years of this millennium. The last decade marked the ultimate lows of the sport marked by incidents such as protests of the Indian Hockey Players against the board, failing to even qualify for the Olympics, open fight between two organizations, the Indian Hockey Federation and Hockey India, to have the control over the sport and ultimately leading to the International Olympic committee’s intervention. But things might be on the verge of changing. As the Hockey India took over the responsibility of governing the sport, it quickly sprang into action, setting up the IPL-style Hockey India League (HIL).
 

Though there were previous attempts to organize a franchisee hockey league in India (even before the success of IPL) such as the ESPN Star-IHF owned Premier Hockey League (PHL) and the Nimbus-IHF owned World Series Hockey (WSH), the Hockey India League quickly grabbed attention with its success of finding corporate sponsorship with the likes of Star Sports India, Hero Honda and many others.
 

Taking cue from the success of IPL, the teams and the players were auctioned. To everyone’s surprise, it was the not the foreign players who earned more, but the Indian Hockey player, Sardar Singh sold for $78000 to the hockey team Delhi Waveriders. The inaugural season in 2013 drew moderate crowds and not much fanfare, the crowds and revenues were on the rise for the 2014 season which is presently underway.
 

With the addition of Bhubaneswar based Kalinga Warriors this season, the total teams competing for the championship has risen up to 6. Though the defending champions Ranchi Rhinos are still very much in the hunt for the cup, it is the Waves-group owned Hockey team Delhi Waveriders, who are favorites to win the cup this year after missing out in the finals of last season.
 

But not all is good with Hockey India League. One major disappointing factor is that all the franchisees are concentrated on the Northern part of India. The southernmost franchisee itself is Bhubaneswar. Though the fact remains that the city teams of Chennai and Bangalore were originally planned, but went unsold in the auction, it is the responsibility of the Hockey India to take the sport to all corners of the country. The Hockey India League may not have been a huge success as its cricketing counterpart, but if managed properly, it could make Hockey a mainstream sport again in this country.
 

Summary: Hockey, the ancient sport that was a part and parcel of India has stood up and taken a rebirth with complete governance by IHF and corporate sponsorship with increase in drive to HIL.

1928 – 1956: Glorious Saga of Indian Hockey

Hockey has found its origin in India during the time of British ruling. It is also known as one among the oldest games for last 1200 years. This game has seen a lot of developments by passing through Arabs, Greeks, Romans and Ethiopians. Some people were used to play this game only for fun while for others it was a good practice of becoming a warrior. The history of hockey team in India is worth mentioning.
 

The term ‘hockey’ has its origin from France. There is a word in French, hocquet which means shepherds crook. All the modern rules for playing hockey were introduced by London Hockey Association in 1886. In India, hockey was introduced by the British Army. The Beighton Cup was the first major hockey tournament in India. In 1895 it was organized in Kolkata. We can still find the photos of hockey players of that time.
 

In the year 1896, once again a tournament was organized for hockey team in India. This tournament

was named as Aga Khan Cup. After that hockey came into full gear making remarkable presence in international events like Afro-Asian Games, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, Hockey Champions Challenge, World Cup, Olympic Games etc.
 

A recent achievement was to organize in India in Delhi in the year 2010. The time period between 1928 and 1956 is considered to be the Golden Period of Indian Hockey. We can see its golden history captured in the photos of hockey players. It was in the year 1928 when India won its first gold medal in Olympics.
 

Without a second thought, India was a champion of hockey till the year 1956. It is an amazing fact that India has won continuous six gold medals in Olympics which is a record still unbroken. Also, Indian hockey has a record of winning consecutive 24 matches during the years between 1924 and 1956.
 

This record is also unbroken till now. Besides that some other remarkable achievements by Indian hockey team are winning a gold medal in World Cup, 2 gold medals in Asian Games and 2 more gold medals in Asia Cup.
 

Some dominating names in Indian Hockey history are Balbir Singh, Roop Singh and Major Dhyanchand. Dhyanchand is the most talked about personality in Indian Hockey. In 1956 he was awarded with Padma Bhushan, for being a legendary player of Indian Hockey who managed to bag three gold medals in Olympics.

Hockey Leagues- A Game of Passion

The national game Hockey of India always gained mixed responses from the spectators and Media. With the increasing likes for the national game, the filmmakers projected lot of film on hockey that aroused more interest and respect for the game amongst the spectators and bought people integrated to join the hockey sports in India.

Hockey Matches and youth

Hockey leagues in India reflect the power of team work and sheer dedication.  Our Players representing India have enthusiastically played well in the national and International tournament matches thus gave us the feeling of pride of our country and national sport.

Over the several years, the national game Hockey is encouraging and engaging various new talents and giving a concrete platform to youth for proving their merit in national sport.

The national game of India is broadcasted in 146 countries. Around the globe there are 41 million fans worldwide of Hockey Leagues in India.

All the credit goes to our young and dynamic players representing India. Saluting the game and it teams,  here are the most historic creditability of the Hockey players names who managed to get victorious win on international, Asian level are:-

Past Achievements

1)    Junior Women Hockey World cup Match- The splendid performance and edge competitive performances of the team, made India win bronze in Germany. Major contribution was given by the best 18 year old player Rani by her strategy of brilliantly managing the field goals in the year 2013 against England team beating them with the score of 3-2.

2)    Mens Hockey Asia level Match- The players remained unbeaten till the finals and portrayed their best of performance in the match thus managed to win silver and getting qualified for the finals. The star performer of the match was Sardar singh who managed to make his dazzling performance till the end.

3)    Asia Men Hockey Champion’s Trophy- Amongst the most renowned Hockey Players names, the contribution by Yuvraj Walmiki and his team was significant; he made India won the Asia cup in the year 2011, In the Hockey league he played for Delhi wave riders.

4)    State Level Hockey matches- The Ranchi Rhinos were announced as winners in the Hero Honda Hockey League the sport was played between the six conventional franchise teams. Their efforts were watched and cheered by the millions of spectators.

We should cheer the performances of the Hockey players and support their dedication in the best possible manner.