Why Hockey is ignored? Is it fair?

Hi friends in this article we will discuss about a serious sports issue, which is hitting the news recently, and it is none other than the problem in the Indian hockey team. I think the future generation might forget the fact that Hockey is the national game of India and they might consider that Cricket is the national sport. This must not occur and the government must definitely step into this problem and they must try to solve the entire problem in the Indian hockey team and federation and more importantly must try different ways that boost the performance of the Indian hockey team.

The recent problem which created lot of tension among various people, especially hockey loving fans is that, Hockey players didn’t attend the training for the World cup, because they were not paid, i.e. they have salary balance. This is really a sorry state for Indian hockey and we can't entirely blame the hockey players alone, because they are not the only one who was responsible for this problem and we must blame the Hockey federation and to an extent Indian Government, because care must be taken to ensure that the Indian hockey stays alive, after all it is the national game of India.

Hockey vs. Cricket:

As mentioned earlier, the future generation in India might think that Cricket is the national game, thanks to a great exposure for the game. The introduction of IPL has boosted the ratings of cricket. As a matter of fact Hockey was far ahead than Cricket, because a similar IPL like, franchise format, was played in hockey a few year back and I hardly remember a team name, like Chennai Veerans for Chennai. Many cities were represented like Chandigarh dynamos and teams from Bangalore and other cities. But slowly, due to poor response, this format died and at present the game of hockey has become still worse, especially after failed to qualify for the recent Olympics.

But we must congratulate the hockey players, because they had the self confidence to come back from the sorrow of not qualifying for Olympics and for the past 1 year, they did well and even in the Champions Challenge Hockey tournament held at Argentina and India was placed third. So the problem started when the Hockey India failed to pay the players an amount of Rs.25, 000 each, because the same amount was played to players when they participate in any foreign tournaments. I believe you can realize this is a very low amount for national players, who represent the country, and the federation is in such a bad situation that they can't even pay this amount to the players.

Now let us compare the salary level in hockey, the national game of India and cricket, the virtual national game of India. Even before the introduction of IPL, cricket players were receiving huge amount and they earn in lakhs for each match. You will be interesting to know that Indian cricket team captain MS Doni received 1.5 lakhs for each runs he scored in IPL first season and the statistics are according to runs scored by him in IPL 1 and the total amount paid to buy him, by the Chennai Super Kings team, which is 6 crore.

You will be still amazed to know that a Ranji player receive Rs. 35, 000 each day in a Ranji trophy match compare to that of Rs. 25,000 which is the salary for a hockey player for the whole tournament, in spite of finishing the tournament third. No bonus for good performance is give to the hockey players. As a matter of fact the Hockey federation is not even in a situation to pay the basic salary to the Hockey players and this clearly explains how the game of cricket dominates the national game and virtually it suppresses the performance of hockey and its development.

Why Player's strike?

New Delhi will host the next hockey world cup from February 28 to March 13, 2010 and at present the players are practicing for this world cup in Pune. The players have already written a couple of letters to the Hockey India regarding the debt, but unfortunately for them they receive no response from them.

The hockey India has stated that they received the two letters from players and also explained that there was no deadline mentioned in those letters. It is expected that the meeting of the major players including Rajpal Singh, Sandeep Singh will be a successful one and let us hope that hockey player's return to practice and they also play well in the World Cup.

Can Hockey get its pride again?

India is the country which won the most number of gold medals in Olympic in the field of hockey and that was the golden era for Indian Hockey. To repeat that performance, India need to work very hard and the task is very heavy. But the only thing which make gives us confident is the Hope and let us hope that Indian team take each step very carefully and I am very sure, if the team plans each and every step and work according to that, then the hope can be transformed into success practically.

So the first task is the World Cup, which approaches next month (February) and we must take this chance to rebuild the Indian hockey. We must make the best use of this chance, because the Indian team will get the full support from all the fans, as the game is being played in India. We believe that the Indian team wins the world cup and winning the world cup will be a great boost for the players and also for the entire country, because it will be a rebirth of Indian hockey.
Hope Indian Hockey team and players rock in the World cup. All the best to Indian hockey team.

Jaihind.