India taught Hockey to the World. Indian Hockey had seen glorious days right from the Olympics in 1928. Winning the Gold in every Olympics consistently had become a habit, nay second nature to the Indian Team. Apart from the immortal and mercurial Dhyan Chand, Punjab and Khadki were the cradles of hockey where budding hockey players were born and trained to become all time greats.
As it happens with all top teams, Indian Hockey also lost its sheen gradually and started to slowly lose ground to upcoming teams like the Europeans – the intelligent Germans and the strong Dutch. The attacking Indian 5-3-2-1 formation was countered successfully by the defensive combination and the Olympics and World Champions started tasting defeat.
The result was that the National Game took a back seat and Cricket started gaining in ascendance. The masses whose only sporting entertainments included Hockey were earlier glued to the then ubiquitous All India Radio, for their quenching of thirst by consecutive victories in International Hockey. Successive defeats and the steady rise of Test Cricket weaned away interest in the former and generated a new wave of enthusiasm in the Gentleman’s game.
The falling stars of hockey and the rising fortunes of Cricket and the advent of bigwigs in the administration of Cricket saw Cricket reaching great heights, especially since Team India won the World Cup in 1983. Ever since then, Indian cricket went from strength to strength, and in spite of the controversies of Match Fixing, Cricket dislodged Hockey from the No. 1 Game in India.
Since the famous victory over the sledgers and once mighty Australians in the Tests and in the limited form of cricket (ODI) and the incredible and sensational triumph over arch and traditional rivals Pakistan in the first edition of the World Twenty20 Tournament, Cricket began a Golden Period in the history of Indian games, to the unfortunate but anticipated detriment of Indian hockey.
Indian Hockey has seen its worst days, thanks to Cricket and also in large measure due to the interference of politics in sports, especially in Hockey. The only way it can move is up, since “A man who is down below, need fear no fall.”
India has the capability to win. We have outstanding individuals who can fuse together into a fighting unit. What we lack is the KILLER INSTINCT, which will MOTIVATE all the players to decimate the opposition, whatever is the level of the competition.
The Indians should be proud to don the INDIA COLOURS and must remember that they are playing for India and are Indians FIRST, SECOND and LAST. The Captain should not be an invisible Captain. He must lead, and lead from the front. All the members of the TEAM, including the Players, Reserves, Physio, Coach and the Administrators MUST support and encourage the TEAMto excel. The role of each player should be well defined and he must fill that role to his 100%.
Finally, the players should keep their eyes on the ball, always. We may lose a few battles, but WE MUST WIN THE WAR.
INDIA CAN DO IT !
INDIA MUST DO IT !!
INDIA WILL DO IT !!!
INDIA BETTER DO IT !!!!
ANUP Y. ATTAVAR
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