Let the Sport Grow

In India, many cricketers have become billion dollar babies but national team players of other sports like Hockey struggle for survival.

 Cricket has grown from a sport to a passion and from a passion to a religion in India. Cricketers have become billion dollar babies. The growth of cricket in India has indeed been inspirational. With proper management, fan following and the future scopes;cricket is good enough to become an industry where there is money and fame. This is the story of cricket in India, in brief ‘awesome’.

Now let’s talk about one another sport; the proud national sport of Indian State.  The glory brought by this sport to India is incomparable to any feat in any other sport. Even India’s favorite sport, Cricket would take years to reach that level. Winning 11 out of the 20 medals India has ever won in the Olympics, this sport has registered India’s name in the world of sport. But the story does not end here. It was the Moscow Olympics 1980 when Indian Hockey Team won a gold medal and this was the last time Indian Hockey won any big tournament. 1980s was the time when two sports were deciding two different fates for themselves; cricket grew with India winning the ’83 WC while hockey moved back.

This was the story of two sports with contrasting fortunes. Here is the question to be asked Why? Why the hockey team of world beaters could never stand back on its feet? We don’t ask that cricket must be banned in India to support the national sport; we ask what cricket did which hockey failed to do? Or is the reason that India is no more interested in hockey and its cricket that they want to cheer for? This excerpt from the newspaper The Times Of India published after India qualified for London Olympic answers the last question- about fans “What does hockey mean to India? Just ask those who danced into the night as their team beat a feeble French side 8-1 in the final at the Dhyanchand Stadium.  Remember the tears and the smiles on those ageing men that took hockey to the highest echelons and then painfully watched it die slowly in front of them. Remember how their faith was restored.”

The real problem Indian hockey is facing is poor administration and lack of support. While Cricket moved to a private governing body in the name of BCCI, Hockey still remains another government run committee getting minimal if not no attention. How can we leave sport administration to ministers, who most probably never played. Don’t we need professional and experienced players to run the sport, which they know? The difference is clearly visible, the BCCI is organizing domestic leagues to encourage young talent and let the cricketers make money on the otherhand the stubborn Indian Hockey Association is threatening player of banning them if they played in a league like the World Series Hockey.

 Even the players who come to play Hockey are playing because they want to play for their nation unlike cricket where money and fame waits for you. The treatment received by both Cricketers and the men with curved sticks is different. While a gradeA cricket player is contracted for Rs. 1 Cr.; a national level hockey player hardly makes 10- 15 Lakhs a year. Looking at the condition of hockey, even 15 Lakhs is hard to believe.  This is all a reflection of poor management.

Hockey is the pride of the nation.We don’t mean to defame or criticize Cricket, we only want to ask the people of a nation so passionate about sports; why is its national sport in danger of survival. We ask the youth to stand and cheer for the sport which has brought laurels after laurels for India. We ask the youth to stand in support for the boys of that Dhyanchand whom the world portrayed with as a man with four arms and four sticks. Only our support for the sport will force sponsors and managers to help this sport. Let the Dream Revive.