Are we Unfair to our National Sport?

I have always tried to inculcate in me a feeling of love, pride and passion for the game of Hockey but unfortunately I have failed every single time in my efforts. If on one hand the laurels of the past have always made me feel inspired and motivated about this game. Then on the other hand I have also experienced a sense of dejection and helplessness, seeing the sorry state of our national team players or the disarray of its main governing body. But even in this state of dilemma I have always figured it out that these feelings aren’t of true love for the game but they are feelings of mere infatuation. So amidst all the ongoing hoopla surrounding the Indian Hockey Team and the Hockey World Cup being staged in India, the big question is ‘Does the current generation render a step motherly treatment to the game of Hockey or are we too overawed by Cricket and its multimillionaire superstars?’ The answer to this controversial question is both Yes and No. YES, because to a good extent we don’t actually care about what is going on in the world of Indian Hockey and if at all we do give an ear to the game, it is only when there is yet another sad story showcasing the sorry state of affairs about the game. We are in a habit of discussing Hockey only if we have to make fun of the game or self-depreciate our team to share a few laughs amongst ourselves. On the contrary the answer to this dubious question is NO also, because we react and behave on what we see and come across in our daily lives. We do pamper and idolize the cricket stars of our country because they give us a constant reason to do so every now and then. They make us feel proud by achieving something, breaking some world records or consistently beating the best teams in the world. And this adulation is not just confined to cricket only (vis a vis Hockey). We pamper the likes of Sania Mirzas, Saina Nehwals, Abhinav Bindras, Vijender Singhs and Raghvendra Rathores we the same intensity and vengeance too. I believe the current generation is a fast food generation, they endorse anything which brings them instant fun, quick returns and satiates their taste buds, they are not the ones to get hooked to something, just dwelling on the past laurels a game might have brought to the country.

The state of Hockey and its following is so bad in our country that people aren’t even aware about the rules of the game, leave apart knowing the names of the players in our national team, at best they know about some ‘Dhanraj Pillai’ and a few older and wiser ones might know about ‘Major Dhyanchand’. And it’s a pity that most of us aren’t even aware of the captain of our national team, though the more hockey literate guys can recall him as some Singh, wisely guessing between Singhs and Pillais, as they are the safest bet in the world of Indian Hockey. But thanks to the recent awareness campaign in the media and to Dr Google as well, most of us know Rajpal Singh is the man leading our nation in the Hockey World Cup. Similarly, the administrative setup and the internal politics amongst the officials of Hockey Federation of India is so dirty and cheap that it hardly adds to the progress of the game in our country, no wonder we stand at a distant no.11 in the world stage and we have qualified for the World Cup by the virtue of being the host nation and not on the basis of merit. So with a weak governing body, weaker financial support and a consistently poor string of results by our hockey team in recent times, how can we expect the current generation to follow and support the national team to raging levels? Its not that the current generation is being partial towards Hockey and unnecessarily biased towards other sports. If the support towards other sports is better, its not that it has been achieved overnight, it has been a slow and a gradual process. There was hardly any following for Cricket before 1980’s, only after India won the Cricket World Cup in 1983 and the sport started producing heroes like Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar who claimed all the records in the cricketing world and resurrected India as a cricketing super power, that the support and following for the game gained momentum and gradually reached its peak. Similarly the rage for tennis in India wasn’t attained over night either, it was the diligence of the likes of Paes, Bhupathis and Mirzas who kept the tricolor flying high and garnered support from all corners. Same was the build up for the games like shooting, chess, weightlifting and boxing, courtesy the great sportsmen like Rathore, Bindra, Anand and Vijender. The younger generation is watching these mortals sweating it out and turning into immortal heroes by the virtue of their consistency and perseverance. The support and the following for a particular sport are directly proportional to the string of successes, consistency of performances and the level of Iconization related to it. So it would be utterly unfair to blame the current crop of youth for showing no interest towards the game of hockey because I doubt this disinterest will persist if we start winning more often and if we produce world class players like Bindra, Vijender and Tendulkar in the field of Hockey.

Another thing which I find very illogical is the concept called ‘National’. We say Hockey is our National Sport, but by logic and common sense a national game should be the one in which that nation excels and a majority of that nation plays that sport. But is it really the case with our nation? We stand way below on the excellence barometer and Hockey is certainly not the most widely played game in the country either. Understandably, when these national jargons were declared, at that point Indian Hockey was at its zenith, but things do change and evolve with time, Bombay is Mumbai now, Madras is Chennai, so what’s wrong in reviewing (say every 50 years) and changing the national sport to a sport in which the nation actually excels and plays extensively? Similar is the state with our national animal, will we continue to take pride in calling Tiger as our national animal, say 20 years down the line too, when in reality there won’t be any Tigers left in our land? So I believe there is nothing wrong in adjusting and acclimatizing with the changing world and also there is no directive from United Nations either that you can’t change any of your National Icons once you have declared them. Ironically, the way we have treated our national icons, be it our National Sport or be it our National Animal, has been absolutely horrendousJ. However, this is an entirely different issue; the state of the game can’t be improved by such cosmetic changes. For a stronger Hockey in India, we need changes from the grass root level, we need a complete overhaul of the administration and the Hockey Federation, we need a solid financial backing from the government and various private agencies, we need a constant string of wins, we need a set of icons, we need a real life coach like SRK to motivate the team and explain them the importance of ‘sattar minute’ but most importantly we need a Lalit Modi who can revitalize this sport in his own way, only then we can expect a mass youth following for this beautiful sport.

Chak de India, Chak de Hockey!

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