India gets its “Chak De” moments

Hockey, a sport that bought India its greatest moment back in history, has lost its sheen and now all that is left of the great sport is a few sepia-tones reminisce of the past.

But amidst this scenario comes a ray of hope. The young girls, virtually unknown even among the hockey followers in India, have brought back the hockey glory to the nation.

Source:Indiatimes.com

The young athletes surprised everyone with a performance that made the rest of the world prop-up to cheer the players on field. Although they lost tamely to the Netherlands in the semis, they did not lose heart and played their hearts out in beating England 3-2 for the bronze medal. And to top it all, our Rani Rampal was also adjudged the best player of the tournament!

Till this triumphant win broke in the news, did you know when was the last time an Indian hockey team won a medal at the World Cup in hockey? The last real big one was a good 38 years ago, a really long period of wait for a nation that gave birth to the great Hockey legend Major Dhayanchand.

Unfortunately, since this was no cricket nor was the media in an overdrive to proclaim that our team was actually in the semi-finals of a world tournament, the sports channels too chose to ignore it and real followers had to depend on the live stream available on the world hockey body’s website.

These girls will return back as heroes and would be feted, and deservedly so. What comes now is the wait, a wait for accreditation for nimble yet mighty players who rightly deserve the best an athlete can be offered. What makes all worry is that the authorities simply don’t have it in them to help the hugely talented youngsters take the next leap, into a world beating competition at the senior level in the near future.

 Some good has happened though. The Hockey India League last year was a resounding success. It brought to India some of the best players in the world. They played alongside our players, juniors, seniors, upcoming. No doubt our youngsters learnt, not just by playing alongside, but spending time with them, how they train, their dietary habits, their discipline and all else. To be fair to the reviled officials, they did a great job in giving the hosting rights of the semis and the finals to Ranchi, which, apart from Punjab and Bhopal, and to some extent Coorg, is easily the nursery of real hockey talent in the country.

The good news for the Hockey players doesn't end there; Hockey India announced that each member of team will be rewarded with a cash prize of Rs One lakh.

So, let us savor the great achievement of these talented girls and hope this is just the beginning of the many more laurels they would get us.