Field Hockey is nowhere a game of the masses like soccer or American rules football or even cricket. Hence interest in it will always remain limited. The Aussies or the Dutch are not crazy about hockey but they do decently well. In other words, “lack of hysteria” about a particular sport should not be the reason for its mediocrity.

Rohan
Daily Humor

Well, the players should find the spirit and make a come back.

We cant compare ourselves with the US, China or Australia because they groom athletes. US even buys them off..Sports is something as important as any development programme in these countries.

First and foremost, we need to have a better management person as the Sports Minister.
India instead of talking about hosting an Olympics shoould start having effective programs to groom people when they are young

And when they achieve..recognise them

And for anyone who dosent want to blame the govt, this is a piece of info I would like to remind..
During the last Olympics, the people from India who ran with the torch included great Sports people from the land namely – Bipasha Basu, Vivek Oberoi, Salman khan..
Afterall, people like PT Usha, Prakash Padukone had nothing to do with sports
I am not sure what more I would need to add!

While on that, the natives also host the worlds biggest hockey tournament/family event.(Guiness Records) A competion between families/clans every year with over 5000 players participating!It perhaps drives home the point, that its passion which drives the sport!

Summarizing the points of interest.

1. Field Hockey is nowhere a game of the masses like soccer or American rules football or even cricket. Hence interest in it will always remain limited. The Aussies or the Dutch are not crazy about hockey but they do decently well. In other words, “lack of hysteria” about a particular sport should not be the reason for its mediocrity.

2.Hockey isn’t conducive to gully games. It requires a lot of space and hockey sticks, one for each player. This is in contrast to cricket. That is a valid point but wasn’t this true even in those days when people in India were passionate about hockey? Hockey was always a game played at school with the school owing the hockey sticks. A point that is often made or used to be is that hockey isnt as elitist as cricket, with minorities and people from depressed states excelling. This seems to be counter-intuitive in this context right?

3. Mismanagement. That’s a given in sports in India. Cricket has made its way around it. So should hockey.

4. Hockey never had a Sachin. That’s perhaps because by the time, the celebrity-creating-medium took roots in India (television, cable, Net), India were not performing consistently at the international level.

5. I did play hockey as part of my Class 10 physical education. I even had more than 80% marks in PE. Yeah thats tough to believe too.

Hockey is still much faster and unpredictable than a 20-20 cricket game.

“India has never been a nation that has encouraged any sport.”

Yes that is a true statement. In fact the education of the world’s most popular sport: sex has been long neglected in Indian high schools.

“Nobody is encouraged to take part in sports or extracurricular activities…most teachers/parents expect only “academic excellence” which generally consists of mere rote learning.”

The IPL will change that. People who get into IPL will now be bigger heroes than people who get into IIT. Indian way of investing is a bit like the german one- save and don’t speculate. Hence the impetus by parents to go for sure returns- education. As Indian moves away slowly from being a poor 3rd world country, there will be plenty of time for people afforded by a leisurely lifestyle to pursue many activities like rock climbing and hiking while drinking gatorade. As we slowly become a more obese nation and the no of gyms increase, contact sports like boxing and maybe rugby will naturally become more popular. As more and more white collar jobs increase, executives will go for yoga and gay executives for naked yoga to bust stress. As the indian society evolves, divorces will increase. With the growing rich poor disparity, the rich are going to get paranoid about their children getting into trouble and send them to martial arts schools. Fat women who would not have hitherto even considered how ugly their butts look, being ensconced in the safety of marriage would now hit the gym to look less like whales and more like human, in order to attract potential mates. And many old men will turn to blackjack and poker and maybe become world champs. But till that happens, you will have to wait dear. You may say that brilliant athletes come out of Kenya, but you have to take into account that there is no more gene and body suited for sport as is the African one.

Interest or disinterest in a particular sport, can be nurtured but not inculcated in school. And society matters. So say if a boy likes to play umm..squash, he needs a certain freedom of mind to do so rather than being badgered by people around him to go for coaching, or that he has to join IMS for CAT or that he will be a loser in life if he doesn’t get into the top medical school etc. But such flexibility is generally the privy of the privileged. Not that many jobs exist in pizza shops or mcdonalds in india for high school grads to earn. The underprivileged will always consider carefully and once he chooses sport, he gives it all as its his bread winning career choice. The rich kid will always have his dad’s business to fall back upon.

“The point is, there is no sporting culture in our country. Passion in a sport can only be generated if people play sports, cheer on the field, enjoy the thrill of the competeition like we (at least I) did in interhouse and interschool tournaments.”

Now now be careful. Maybe 50 years from now there will be no schools. Maybe education will shift online. And times and interests change. A few days back, a report in NYT said that golf, that great game, was losing appeal amongst the elite. So maybe 50 years from now, CEOs may play Xbox. The kind of excellence you are talking about is self transcendence, say like Sergei Bubka or Emil Zatopek. Now remember that persuit is personal, culture has nothing to with it. As an example, there is a culture now of going to the gym. Many do it to get fit, many for networking, many for hitting chicks (a frnd of mine actually wears Hugo Boss to the gym…lol), many cuz doc told that them if they don’t run and only smoke and drink, they will accelerate towards a heart attack. But few people do it out of that inner zeal and enthusiasm. You may not know but there were 2 bengali bodybuilders who were Mr. Universe in the 50s- yes Mr. Universe- Manohar Aich and Manotosh Roy. These are classic examples of people who did something because they loved it. Without that inner love, gym may be just something you do so that the fat from the cheese pizza you had yesterday doesn’t accumulate around your waist. Do you see the difference? The thrill of competition that you talk about can be accentuated by monetary rewards, ie college scholarships etc and for young boys via sexy cheerleaders and short skirts etc.

“Most of us however, are armchair “sports appreciaters”. Most people who watch football have probably never played even a gulli match with friends.”

Again, that is a fallacy. I have been to plenty of sports bars during football (American football) matches. The most ardent supporters are generally the biggest slackers who can drink a pitcher of beer just like that. Also look at the bodies of Barmy army or the English football supporters. And it is this support base which precisely makes sport popular enough for advertisers to sponsor their coverage on TV.