A Common Fan’s Sports Diary

The Union Ministry of Sports has decided to demote hockey from the ‘priority’ to the ‘general’ category. This means that Indian Hockey will now receive less money from the Centre and that would have an adverse affect on a number of things — right from sending players abroad for competitions to conducting coaching camps and providing sports equipment. Hockey has been demoted due to the lack of international success, and has been replaced by sports like Wushu, Kayaking and canoeing. The ministry deemed them to have more medal prospects than hockey. The message is loud and clear – that hockey is as good as dead and we have no future in the game.

Iam totally flabbergasted by the arcane logic of the ministry. Had the ministry been a parent, they would have stopped feeding their child, and sending him to school, for getting bad grades, rather than getting extra tuition or paying more attention to the child’s home-work.

Secondly, it is brainless comparing a team sport with an individual one, in terms of their medal winning potential (‘number’ of medals that can be won in that sport). You can only win one medal in a team sport, whereas a sport like canoeing would easily have around 40-50 on offer. It requires the collective effort of eleven players to win team events, whereas a swimmer like Michael Phelps alone can get you half a dozen medals.

Football and volleyball have also been penalized for poor performances – fair point. So what about cricket then? We have recently justified the ICC’s decision to give test status to Bangladesh. And mind you, cricket is hardly a global sport. There are just a handful of nations who play it and the only time it featured in the Olympics was way back in 1904. Cricket deserves special treatment, but Hockey doesn’t? The last time I heard it was still our national game and remains to this date the only sport, where we have won an Olympic gold.

The despotic president of the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), KPS Gill is unperturbed by the decision. After all, his Herculean efforts to kill the game have finally started to bear fruit. If only the govt took some affirmative action in taking him to task and not the game itself.

Finally, special thanks to the sports minister, Mr. Mani Shanker Aiyer, for the timing of his announcement. On the same day, a youthful Indian side under a new coach had raised new hope by storming into the semi-final of the Azlan Shah Trophy. Greater irony in the fact, that this year we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the ‘First War of Indian Independence’- and murder the ‘game’ which did more than any ‘war’ in bringing the people of this country together and giving it back to the British (In the 1948 London Olympics, a newly independent India beat Great Britain in the final). I bet the likes of Dhyan Chand (Hockey’s equivalent of Pele and Bradman) and Balbir Singh are turning in their graves.