National Sport: who cares!!.............BUT............Religion: humongous hullabaloo..!!

Its official..India is out of the world cup..

Does this bang in ur ears like the shrill breaking of bangles??I know it does but it won’t any more wen I say that I’m talking abt the hockey world cup..That ‘thank god’ expression on ur face tells me how relieved u r on listening that it’s not the cricket world cup that I’m talking abt..

Come on people wake up!!Its hockey that I’m talking abt...Hav u all forgotten that cricket is not the national sport of our country..Its hockey!!

Accha tell me how many of u did seriously keep a track of the hockey world cup??I can bet that 80% of u’ll reading here dint even know abt the world cup..Can any one of u name the captain of the hockey team without searching for it on Google or Bing??NO...People don’t even know that it ws held in our country this year..At New Delhi..It’s a sorry state of affairs in our country and WE r only responsible for it..

We don’t live in the country of Harry Potter but we surely share our country wit the “hockey wizard”..The great Dhyan Chand..The person who used to dribble the ball past all the others present on the field and hit the ball straight into the goal..It ws said that the whole hockey fraternity on one side and Dhyan chand on the other, still then he would win wit a great margin..That ws his class..That ws his genre..That ws the respect he had earned..But where is all that gone??

India finished off 8^th in the world cup this time..It ws a far better performance than wat we had in the last world cup..We surely r recovering but I still pity on the condition of our national sport..A country from which the whole hockey world used to be terrified has been left to jst a pass-by..We ruled the sport for decades..But no longer now..All that pomp and show is gone..All that glory has been diminished to dust..

Wat do u think is the reason for this??Y has this sport degraded in itself??And y hav we got ourselves adapted to this??The primary reason for this is the turning away of the sport from its original format to a new format..The game which ws previously played at fields is now played only on Astroturf..Astroturf has this special ability of letting the ball move very fast..The ball moves at a tremendous speed in Astroturf..We Indians r still very gud at the dribbling and all stuff but the sport has moved to new heights..More than the skills now wat matters is the strength and stamina that u put into the sport, the speed wit which we run after the ball and also run along wit it..We do accept the fact that we Indians r not that fit as the other International teams..But for how long can we give this excuse!!It’s been 30 long years since this Astroturf has been introduced into the sport..Is not that a pretty long time to get used to it??

On the other hand during that time only India had won the Cricket world cup and we from then started being more and more into cricket and forgetting our national sport..Even in Cricket y r we not able to hold onto the no.1 position for long??Wen the OZ had the tag, they dint hav anything to fear..They were not at all bothered whether someone in some other part of the world wins or loses a game and that may affect their no.1 position..They were way ahead of the others on the points table..Then y is it so wen we come to the zenith??In all the other countries that hav been no.1, cricket is not their first sport..For the Aussies Rugby is the first sport, then comes cricket..For the West Indians Basketball is their first sport, then comes cricket..Even for the British Football is their first sport, then comes cricket..But but but for us Indians Cricket is first and Cricket is only second..That’s y we wobble and fumble in Cricket as well..So if we’ve hockey as our first sport then we will even excel in cricket at a far more faster pace than wat we’r doing now..And on top we won’t even be afraid of losing our no.1 spot..Thus we’ll be able to hold on to our no.1 spot wit much more ado..!!

Let us face it..How many of us will allow our off springs to go to a hockey field rather than going onto a cricket field??That Poppysmic expression on ur face tells me that it’s a big NO...It’s not jst u..Even it applies for me..We don’t hav more than two Astroturf fields in one state..But for cricket we jst need a ball and a bat..That’s all we need for it..We give a damn abt how much space we’re getting..That’s the reason..

So I opine that the government should put in more funds in this sport..We need more grounds for hockey..We want to tell our future generation that along wit cricket the world also fears us in hockey..We should be able to tell our kids that we live in the country of the Hockey Wizard..Along wit cricket, sponsor’s should come forward for this sport as well..Along wit MSDhoni we also want to see Prabhjot Singh in the advertisements..And likewise..Unless and until this sport gets funds this sport will remain a ramshackle..Not jst that WE as the viewers should also come forward and support the sport..Like Cricket matches we should also step to the fore in gr8 numbers for seeing Hockey matches..Even the government should take steps so that Hockey jst doesn’t stay as the national sport only in our general knowledge books..It should also be in our hearts and then we would also be able to boast to our friends in the fairer countries that we don’t jst hav one sport that we hoot for..We hav two religions, Hockey and Cricket..!!

So Cricket is Religion but isn’t Hockey our National Sport???

Jaishree Ram,

Prats..