It all ends in tears

There are murmurs that Mumbai8217;s Wankhede Stadium, while preparing to host the 2011 Cricket World Cup final...

There are murmurs that Mumbai8217;s Wankhede Stadium, while preparing to host the 2011 Cricket World Cup final, will gobble up the adjoining astroturf of the Bombay Hockey Association 8212; the city8217;s sole hockey premise. This spatial expansion apart, the timing of Indian hockey8217;s lowest low 8212; within five days of cricket8217;s heady high in Australia 8212; will not be lost on alarmists who believe that cricket will brazenly guzzle down beleagured hockey.

But does cricket really have to try anymore?

It is perhaps right that these doomsayers be given time and space to vent out their loudest, harshest cries of bereavement. For what India has lost in Chile deserves an official mourning period that goes beyond ruing the meek submission to Britain 8212; mind you, also a cricketing nation of great pride.

Joaquim Carvalho8217;s men would not have hoped for open-top buses to greet them in Bangalore had they managed to qualify for the Olympics. But an India 8212; high on winners and winning 8212; is likely to accord its returning hockey-bunch something more lethal than criticism and contempt: four years of indifference.

It8217;s not so much about cricket unveiling its multi-million dollar IPL in a month8217;s time and catching the nation8217;s fancy: it is the sheer despair over hockey8217;s own city-based PHL staggering despite its audience-and-advertisement friendly innovations.

Neither is it about shrugging off this Santiago nightmare as an aberration, and pooling in all hopes into that dreamy illusion of youth setting it all right 8212; sprightly youngsters, like the ones who stomp around confidently these days on cricket fields from Malaysia to Australia. Hockey has had its pristine youthful promise on a platter 8212; the Junior World Cup champs of 2001.

The dream died quickly, with reasons ranging from selection politics to players losing motivation to go on. The drag-flicker8217;s jinx hurts more than Indian cricket8217;s dearth of pace bowlers did not too long ago. Hockey seems to have tried it all. And yet lost.

No quick-fix

It was only a year ago that Indian cricket was facing its sternest and prickliest posers after exiting the World Cup. There was redemption within six months in the form of Twenty20.

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Unfortunately for the stick-men, there8217;s no quickie-hockey to salvage their sport8217;s own melancholic March.

When India8217;s Olympic contingent walks the opening ceremony on 8/8/08, it will have shrunk dramatically from Athens 8212; hockey8217;s 16 missing from the celebratory march-past. Only 23 Indians have qualified otherwise 8212; there were 76 four years ago. And from the quibbling that has been going on in another key discipline 8212; tennis 8212; India8217;s non-cricket sports seem to be on the path to self-destruct.

Hockey has let go off its only opportunity in four years to grab the eye-balls. And sadly, Indian sports8217; most impressionable minds 8212; those under-25, born after 1980 8212; will have grown up not knowing what an Olympic gold medal is at all. That8217;s a generation of admirers lost.

The street-wise clincher: SRK8217;s IPL cricket team is a fact, his Chak De seems mere pop fiction now. Don8217;t blame the Wankede for nudging out the BHA.