Give the hockey its due

Indian hockey has hit the road to revival of its glorious past. A bronze medal at the ongoing Paris Olympics is enough an evidence - something that also shows that a bronze at the previous Games in Tokyo was not just a fluke. India last won a medal - a gold - at the 1980 Moscow Games. Since then the country - that has five Olympic hockey golds under its belt - suffered a drought of an Olympic hockey medal until 2020 Tokyo Games. This makes a long wait of forty years. However now, like in so many other games, India has started making a steady progress in hockey too.

And while India's hockey players rose to the victory stand at the Paris Games, Pakistan's were altogether missing from the prestigious competition. Even worse: this is their third absence from the Games - and that too in a row. Team Pakistan was neither able to secure a spot at 2016 Rio Olympics and 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Having bagged the Olympic hockey gold thrice - at Rome (1960), Mexico City (1968) and Los Angeles (1984) - Pakistan hockey has long been struggling to find its feet back. The situation is so appalling that the world-beaters of yore have turned into pathetic pushovers, struggling to win even second-string contests like Azlan Shah Cup.

The situation warrants serious government focus in the form of significant investment in what is regarded as our national game. Our hockey, according to experts, is just restricted to a small of pool 30 to 35 players. The government must stop the step-motherly treatment being meted out to hockey and do whatever it can to popularise and patronise the game, like: reviving hockey at the club level; providing world class training facilities; announcing incentives for players and officials; and bringing in sponsors for a hockey league on the pattern of PSL. Our hockey had been our pride for so long the world over. We need to give our hockey its due.