"Enjoying the game?" I asked my dad as we set next to the TV sets watching Jayasurya plundering bowlers all across the ground. "I would have never supported Jayasurya, if he was not playing for the Indians", was my dad's reply. Well true in most cases, and the credit for this should go to Mr. Lalit Modi.
Well India requires a Lalit Modi, to Look after its national sport. Yes, i am talking about "Hockey". In the last decade, the national sport has seen lots of ups and downs (mostly downs). In this period, the team has had countless number of captains and coaches. The result was that the team was unable to win any medals in any forms, baring the Asia cup wins and the recently concluded Azlan Shah cup (where India won a silver medal). The saddest of the incident was when India was unable to qualify for the Beijing Olympics 2008.
My friend once saw Dhanraj Pillay sitting under the statue, and was unnoticed by the passersby. He had a sorry tale to say that "If Sehwag was sitting in place of him, there would be huge line for autograph, but there is no value for Hockey in this country who has won 6 consecutive Olympics gold medals between 1928 - 1956".
The article is not against cricket or its popularity, but only to highlight that we should do something to save this beautiful game in the country. Football can have huge fan following in Europe, why cant we have same for Hockey in India. Well we need a magician called Lalit Modi to revamp Hockey in India.
6 comments:
Himanshu, i think you have hit the nail right on its head. Hockey is our national game and something needs to be done to revive it. Few years back they did organize PHL (Premier Hockey League) - the same concept as IPL, but it didnt work out. I guess the need is to glamorise Hockey as they have done to cricket. May be film stars can come to the rescue here.
well said!!! Hopefully the removal of Mr. Gill as the head of IHF will help the cause.........
Hey! Great start Himanshu! I saw high-lights of the Santosh Trophy yesterday in news...was astonished to see an empty stadium! (tht too for finals)...vis a vis IPL where stadiums were flooded...recently India's TT team won 4 gold medals at a tournament held at Karachi....nobody knows about it..games with no glamour are ignored in India...and it is heartening...
Great Himanshu!!!!!! i really appreciate that u have focused on such an important topic, especially hockey being our NATIONAL GAME....We all seriously need to think about it and strive to give deserving respect to our national game....
Very True......
Glamorize Hockey get some Chikx to Cheer.........sure to be a HIT !!!!!!!
AND.............
Anyone out there to Support Motor Racing too ?????????
dude u still drink MILK ????????
Hey, this topic reminds me of an inter-school debate i had taken part in. The topic was "Should Cricket be Made the National Sport". We were speaking for the topic and still stand by it. I do agree that the players need to be rewarded well, but their performance has neither been consistent nor has shown signs of improvement. So who would want to follow such a team. I am not being pessimistic, i am being practical.. who would like to invest time and money in a losing team?
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