Memorandum to President and Prime Minister of India.

Memorandum

To,
Smt. Pratibha Devi Patil
The President of India.
Rashtrapati Bhawan,
New Delhi-110004


The Fate of Indian Hockey

Is it not disgraceful that a country with a population of more than a billion fails to survive for its national sport? This in short is the account of the downfall of Indian Hockey which is upsetting not only for hockey enthusiasts in India, but for sports fan all over the world.

1920’s and 1960’s India bags eight gold, one silver, two bronze medals in eighteen successive appearances in the Olympics. Six of the eight gold medals came in consecutive appearance. In 2008 India fails to even qualify for the Beijing Olympics. We know that there is no dearth of talent. What we require is a functional and active body at the centre that can exploit and capitalize on this talent.

Hockey tournaments are needed at the school level, University level, district level and state level to generate and inculcate interest in this sport amongst the children and youth.

When the Indian cricket team won the 20-20 tournament, they were awarded lavish bungalows, cash prizes and treated like heroes. But, does anyone even remember the amount of coverage that was given to the Hockey team at that time which won the Asia Cup?

The important question arises that why cricket seems to be the only sport that everyone follows.

The hockey federation in India should gain knowledge of marketing their sport from the BCCI who have capitalized on the 20-20 auctions and even the ‘Chak de’ theme.

(Ironically every game seems to have benefited from it except for hockey on which it was actually based). The government of India should want to take some serious and effective efforts, to save our National sport hockey. We need not blame the hockey players for not performing. What incentives did cricketers get and what incentives got hockey players for performing.

At a time, when cricketers are making crores and staying in five star hotels while, Hockey players have do with staying in the premises of the national stadiums. With such bad conditions, we do not blame them if they quit the sport in search of a more stable livelihood.

At a time when Hockey world Cup is began, we woke up and made a collective effort to revive our national sport. It might take time but let us not give up on it.

This is also true that the administration that has failed to capitalize upon chances that it got to revive the sport. Now the condition of our national game is worst and the Hockey is on life support that needs fresh ideas with deep interest. It needs fresh ideas with deep interest. It needs fresh minds and overall, it needs a new life. Our national game deserves much better than what it is getting now. Let us give it one.

When we compare a cricketer and a Hockey player. First, every Indian cricketer is being paid in lacs per match and when we are talking about Hockey ,its just In hundreds per match.

When we are talking about telecast rights there are 100 channels to bid for a cricket series but none of the channels turn up for a hockey match.

What a pitiable condition our national game is in!

The players who are playing without spectators and without sufficient money, the issues are enough to demoralize them.

At last but not the least, I would like to say that the Indian government should take some serious steps to promote our national game hockey. This is our tribute to our National game, which is losing its trace. Chak de Bharat . Zindabaad.



YUVA KOSHISH