Opinion Hockey high
As India wins gold, books ticket to Rio, hockey days are here again.
To place in context the gold won by Sardar Singh’s boys in Incheon on Thursday, it is necessary to remind ourselves that India had last won an Asian Games final in 1998 and played Pakistan in a final 32 years ago. The win lifts India to the world stage as it is now assured of a place in the Rio Olympics in 2016. India would have had to play the tough Olympic qualifying tournament if it had lost the final to Pakistan. Terry Walsh, the Australian legend who is the India coach, now has sufficient time to focus on the Olympics and prepare the team for the rigours of Rio, where the competition will be a notch higher.
Like in cricket, a hockey match involving India and Pakistan has always been a test of skill and nerves. Historically, Pakistan has had the upper hand in the Asian Games, winning eight golds to India’s two and nine wins against India’s three until Thursday. Even at Incheon, Pakistan had defeated India in the opening league game. The star of Thursday’s final was goal keeper P.R. Sreejesh, while the blame for the 7-1 loss to Pakistan in the 1982 final had gone to the then goal keeper Mir Ranjan Negi.
The Asiad gold should provide a leg-up to Indian hockey, which in recent years has seen a revival of sorts, mainly due to the professionalism that came in with the Hockey India League. The game has been on the decline in India ever since the playing surface shifted from grass to synthetic turf. Failure to adapt to the new playing conditions, the emergence of cricket as a popular sport that attracted money and talent, and a squabbling administration caused the decline, and India is no more the power house it used to be in world hockey. Hopefully, the Incheon win will mark the beginning of a happy turn in this story.
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