Thursday, March 13, 2008

Is this the end of the road for Indian Hockey, Chak De or Chuck De ? ?

Whats wrong with Indian Hockey team at the moment ? This is the first time that the Indian Hockey team has failed to qualify for the Olympics after nearly 80 years, that's pretty long back, even before free India. That shows what the kind of passion and love for the sport that they had.

But what happened to the passion and love for the beautiful game now ? The once considered as "INVINCIBLE" who have won eight gold medals, have miserably failed to even book a spot in Olympics. There has been a lot of speculations and debates and special interviews going on in media to know what really costs us the Olympics. But is these debates really the need of the hour ? In my opinion a certain no. We have to rather focus on developing the game. Although cricket is a religion here, we should not forget our national game.

The infrastructure of the hockey has to be improved still. It is not upto the world class standards. Infrastructure is very much necessary and important for development of the game. Also IHF or the Indian Hockey Federation has to take more responsibility and more care to develop our national game. When asked about the loss, each one in the hockey feternity is very quick to throw the blame on one another, but the end sufferer is the game of hockey.

Also i have sympathy for our players, because the media today are like that, when done well, they give all credit to them and if they do not do well , then they are gone. But it was very surprising rather sad, to see how each one throws blame on each other. In fact, the coach went to the extent of blaming the umpires for the loss, sounds like somewhere we have heard this, Yes in our own religion called cricket. The coach has put the blame on players too, in fact he was partly right, a coach can only formulate plans and its the players who have to execute them, and as always in Indian Hockey, the execution went wrong yet again.

If this was not enough for a blow to India, the world hockey committee has decided to reconsider the decision of holding the hockey world cup in India. If they decide to not to host it in India, then its a severe beating for us. Is the administration really the fault ? Not only former Indian players even former International players have said the same thing that it was due to poor planing and administration that has cost India its Olympic place. Darryl D'Souza, a former Olympian has said that the team has not at all prepared well, it seemed that we have practiced against western Australia and tamil nadu teams. Oh God, to qualify for Olympics we practiced against such minor teams. This shows that the administration is the problem. Even Gill, who is President of IHF is so adamant that it was not his fault, he seems to say that administration is not a problem.

Finally, whatever the reason may have been but its over now, India cannot participate in this year's Beijing Olympics. But we should never lose heart. It will not take more time to see the Indian hockey team become invincible once again. Even some former players have said to leave the debacle behind and should focus on the infrastructure and prepare for the 2012 London Olympics from now itself. I guess what they said is true, at least from now on the IHF should take proper care of Indian Hockey and make sure that India not only qualify for next Olympics but start a GOLDEN PERIOD OF INDIAN HOCKEY by winning the gold medal. I hope every one like me would like to say "CHAK DE" and never "CHUCK DE"

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