Reviving Our National Game

What a sporting day it was for India yesterday. People who would take the instance of the pathetic loss in cricket and won’t agree to my first line, then let me clear this at the outset – ‘Cricket team is not the team of India. It is at best the BCCI team and their win/loss doesn’t necessarily mean a win/loss of India’. Hence the so called diehard fans of cricket can stay away from this post as I really care rat ass if the money hungry cricketers won it or lost it or for that matter if Sachin was wrongly adjudged out or not. The favorite son of the soil Mahendra Sing Dhoni is doing the clarifications so don’t expect anything from this lesser mortal on our millionaire cricketers.
  

Back to the point for which I started writing this piece. The sorry image of us losing to Britain in Santiago and missing our flight to Beijing Olympics last time around is still fresh in many minds. We were dejected and felt like our national game going to oblivion with this final nail in the coffin. We were angry on our sports bodies for managing our national game so roughly and demanded heads be rolled both at the players as well as management end for such debacle. We blogged, twitted with an open defiance of many things as we were worried we may not see our national game getting the respect and applauds it deserves. That was a day and yesterday was another day.

 

Continuous performance of highest quality during the tournament has brought about a huge fan following of our Hockey team. People who had lost faith in our team after the Beijing qualifier routing were again getting interested on what is happening on the Hockey field. Backed by a 100% performance throughout the tournament when our team entered the Maj. Dhyan Chand stadium yesterday evening, it was no surprise that a jam packed stadium with Tricolor flattering everywhere greeted our players. What a clinical performance that followed. Clad in white our boys were everywhere with Sandeep seemed like he can’t just commit anything wrong yesterday. 5 out of 6 penalty corners were successfully deposited behind the net at thumping force and we were already issuing our boarding pass to London even before the French could realize how the lightning has struck them. And for sure with an 8-1 score line we can safely say, we thrashed France in the encounter. After a long time I felt the goose bumps seeing our team taking a victory lap with our Tricolor flying high everywhere. Before we move ahead let’s pause for a moment and ponder – So much of flair. Doesn’t cricket look pedestrian in comparison?

 

That said, let’s not forget the way we have mismanaged our national game for decades now and how we have systematically ruined the game that is synonym with our national identity. No support to our players in any form whatsoever; crooks and complete nonsense at the helm of Indian Hockey Federation; no recognition to our team who were performing under high duress and adversity. You name it and we have done that to sabotage our national game and its reputation. I still remember the college days of Rourkela and the apathy shown to our players. Panposh sports hostel which has produced players (many of them are world class) like Michael Kindo, Deelip Tirckey, Ignesh Tirckey, Sabu Varky, Lazrus Barla, Vikram Lakra didn’t had an AstroTurf stadium at their disposal. Forget about the AstroTurf, the Sector – 5 stadia they used to practice didn’t even had a clean tap to supply water to our players. The AstroTurf designated for the stadium had to be returned thrice due to lack of fund. It was only when the then Chief-Minister of Odisha Mr. Biju Pattnaik took a note of the mess and paid from his pocket for the turf that the stadium finally got it laid out. I am struggling for genuine answers. Can’t we spend 1.5 crores for our national game when we readily spend a double of the amount for a single visit of a scoundrel minister’s security? Is this what a nation can at best do for its national game? Instances of the apathy meted out to our Hockey team are many. Who can forget the plight of the Punjab state Hockey team who were forced to spend one day – two nights on the Guwahati railway station platform. Can’t we even arrange a decent hotel for the guys who represent us and keep our Tricolor flying high? Cant the people of Guwahati come forward with their help after seeing it on TV? Disgusting.

 

Along with the team there is an equal number of personal apathy towards our players even. On a direct flight to USA, a familiar face greeted me with a can of beer as part of the cabin crew members. The old college days flashed before my eyes and after mustering some courage I called the gentleman and asked – Are you by any chance Igensh Tirckey? After a brief silence he acknowledged my guess. Little did I know I would have embarrassed him by asking this question and followed by asking for his autograph in the laid out tissue in front of me. Reluctantly he honored my request and scribed IGNESH in the piece of paper. After I touched down, out of rage I wrote to Air-India and their complete insensitivity towards an Olympian. Can’t they offer him an administrative job at least? All that they can offer is a job as a crew member to serve beers to outright idiots like me on a flight? Disparaging. I am told Air-India have rectified this stupid act of theirs after that. Who can forget the tears of a great like Dhanraj Pillay? Perhaps one of the best forwards the world hockey has ever seen, he was left with no option but to cry before the cameras and vow not to allow his son ever to adore the sports which always was his life. Could we have asked for a worse scenario for our national game? A three time Olympian had to cry before us to let know the nonchalant behavior of our sports bodies towards the servants of our national game. If we haven’t yet hang our heads in shame for allowing this to happen then there must be something grossly wrong within us. Did anyone has forgot the case of Rajiv Mishra yet? We shouldn’t, at least on the largest interest of national pride.

 

Look at the Indian Hockey Federation and the hawks that run it. A tremendous defender and Olympian like Pargat Sing can’t win the Hockey Federation election because of acute politics while complete garbage having little or no knowledge of the game adoring the chair. I pity for our national game more than anything else. While our boys have to go on a strike for meager 25000, the buffoons at the helm runaway with the loot. Can’t remember another nation which is so indifferent and disrespectful towards its national game. Those who still believe Suresh Kalmadi should not be hanged on the nearest lamp post please raise their hands.

 

Where is our sports minister Ajay Maken? While his last evening Tweet urging everyone to support our team was commendable, just want to ask this. While Doordarshan can live telecast a useless piece of cricket match from down-under, why no live telecast of the Hockey match going in our country? What the hell is going around here; someone please clarify me right away? Why DD blacked out? Our national team playing our national game, fighting for a spot in the Olympics and our national broadcaster have no interest in telecasting it. Heavens, I don’t have words to describe such felony of obnoxious amnesia. Hope we won’t have a repetition of it in future as promised by Mr. Maken.

In the meantime – Three big cheers to our Hockey team. Bravo!!, you made all of us proud. Keep the good work and concentrate a little on our defense, skillful usage of the free hits and center half and who knows we might just win the Olympics gold after 32 years; exactly as I have assured Michael Kindo (father of a very good friend of mine James) a member of the 1975 World Cup winning team, that he will see it happening again.

 

To rectify the mistake a little, on behalf of an entire nation and few rascal officials I beg an apology from our Hockey team for treating them so badly for decades together and in return these guys have always kept our Tricolor high. Hats off to you Boys and hope you guys would forgive us for our mistakes!! Watch out London, here comes the real juggernaut; tackle it if you can.