Indian hockey team has returned without qualifying for the Beijing Olympic.
It has happened for the first time in 80 years. Former hockey players blamed Chief Hockey coach Joaquim Carvalho and Indian Hockey Federation Chief, KPS Gill for this dismal performance. Interestingly, some critiques blamed the yellow cards shown to the players in the tournament. Critiques wanted the dissolution of Hokey Federation and immediate resignation of KPS Gill. Amid the heap of criticism the real cause of India's dismal performance is over looked.
The main reason for India's poor performance is due to the decline in public interest in hockey. In the post independent period little effort has been made to popularize hockey as a national game. Today, the game hockey is confined to a few cities only. How can anybody expect world class players from an environment which has seldom encouraged hockey? Gone are the days when India was winning six Olympic gold medals in a row. Indian stick-work, widely known as Indian dribble was unparallel in the world. Indian monopoly over hockey was broken when hockey rules were changed to suit the European standard. Hockey had got a rugby mix. In 1976 Montreal Olympic, hockey was played on synthetic grass and India finished seventh in the game.
The new kind of hockey was a power game which was enforced to end artistic hockey for which the Indian and Pakistani players were famous. This is high time for India and Pakistan to raise this issue in different international forum to bring back hockey to natural grass surface. International Olympic Association must make hockey more inclusive as there are a few hockey playing nations who can afford to give practice to their players due to high cost of synthetic surfaces.
Synthetic grass should not be blamed for India's poor performance. Indian youths are no longer interested to make hockey as a career due to lack of transparency in selection, lack of sponsors and uncertain future. Gone are the days when players of "Bhopal Wonders" the world famous hickey team of Bhopal won eight Indian caps. Unless sports quota is made compulsory in all public sectors and private sector organization India will never shine in the sports field.
The expenditure towards purposeless meetings, seminars, discussions, workshops and debate must be drastically reduced to bare minimum and the funds should be used for development of sports hostels, play ground and nutrition levels of players. Sports take care of nation's health and make people more productive. An economic boom is of no use if half of India's population suffer from malnutrition.
The way hockey has added raw power and speed, developing nation like India will always be left out. Though we are a trillion dollar economy with a billion plus population we have also 380 million people who donot have a dollar to spend. According to National Sample Survey data the average per capita calorie intake per day in rural India fell from 2266 keal in 1972-73 to 2183 keal per day in 1993-94. This has further deepened to 2149 keal in 2000 AD. NSSO Report also indicated Indians have eaten junk food worth Rs 40,000 crore in 2003.
Since we don't have food testing lab Indians will freely eat pesticide contents in food and vegetables. The spurious drug market in India was of Rs 4000 crore in 2003 and is growing at 20% per annum. We have tonnes of synthetic milk supplied to people. Where from our people will get nutrition to compete with the Europeans where people eat pure nutritious food. Even one dozen Carvalhos and two dozens KPS Gills can not improve hockey in India. In the last ten years we have already changed 15 hockey coaches.
It is not only hockey which fades out from public memory other games of Indian origin like wrestling, judo, javelin throw, discuss throw, swimming, archery, fencing and equestrian event etc have lost their popularity. This is high time India has to focus on games of Indian origin which are in the Olympic. We have enough funds but little commitment to develop swimming, athletic, long jump, high jump, pole vault and many other games. India must groom sportsmen on their own instead of helplessly looking at the developed nations for tips and equipments. We have talented and creative sportsmen who can make the difference if they are groomed in proper environment.
Nobody expected India would beat super power of cricket Australia consecutively in a row. Our cricket has got the driving force under skipper Dhoni. The cricket selection has become more inclusive and media is ever alert to hit the odd man out from the cricket field. Today the game cricket has become the darling of the corporate world for its immense marketing potential. An interesting game like hockey is yet to get the patronage from the corporate world. There is perennial lethargy and lack of commitment in developing sports in India.
Look the poorly managed play grounds of the majority of government schools in India. One can come across children running here and there in those vast play grounds amid wild ggrass and shrubs during their game period. Every school can organize one or two sport on a regular basis if they have commitment.
The Union Government has to develop a mechanism to inspect sports activities across the country. There should be an inspection department within the Sports Ministry to find out all kinds of short comings in sports which will ensure proper utilization of funds. The process of de-politicisation of sports bodies must start soon. Today many stadiums across the country are used for non sports activities like political meetings, cultural functions and wedding etc. The original plans of many beautiful stadiums have been altered in order to accommodate commercial establishment. Earning revenue by any means has seriously contaminated sports institutions also. This is the reason why professionalism in sports has not developed in India. Sport is the greatest assimilator which can cement caste, language, class and religious divide. The relationship develops among sportsmen always comes from the core the heart which crosses the frontier of caste, religion and language and border.
Indian political class must converge on the objective of promoting at least one discipline of sport in their constituency.
Sudhansu R Das
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