Saturday, September 19, 2009

Should Government help Indian Hockey?

Disclaimer: By this blog, I am not targetting any individual. I am targetting a mindset - the mindset of getting things without 'earning' them, the mindset of recognition only in India and not abroad. By no means, I intend to dishonour any awarding systems or awards such. I respect each and every player or individual who ever made it to the playing-11.

Check this link:
http://blogs.cricinfo.com/surfer/archives/2009/09/harsha_unplugg.php
Harsha Bhogle has a point. A person of his calibre anyway can't just simply blabber anything.

The thing that bothers me, all the while, is the dependency of the whole system on the Government. For everything that went wrong, Government is responsible. Government is not taking care of development of Hockey, Government is not providing the facilities, Government is not taking care of health and care, players future, and the list goes on.

I actually feel, we need a scapegoat and we have picked "Government" for that.
Many Hockey players pursue sports like bread and butter. They don't study, they just play Hockey with the eventual dream to play for the country. They play finally, get themselves a Public Sector job through Sports Quota (remember, it comes irrespective of qualification) and then keep blaming that company itself (read it, Government) for various things that go wrong in their professional lives.
It doesn't stop at that. When they don't get assistance when they expect, you know who you can blame!
Answer me a question: You played and only played all your life. If you ask me, you had fun through out. You pursued "your passion". How come you can ask Government for freebies in that case?

When it come to awards, our aim is only to get Government recognition, i.e. Arjuna Award. That is what they fight for, year after year.
I beg your pardon, there are other awards as well, remember FIH Player of the year?
Not many think about this is evident from the fact that not many know when and where Champions Trophy is happening, because India is not playing in that. Our knowledge of International Hockey is below average.
Leave aside International award, Indian Players fail to make it to FIH All Star Hockey team either every year. If not the saving grace by Dilip Tirkey, (that too in 2007) Indian players don't even feature anywhere close to that list.
Can you blame the Government for that as well?
India doesn't win any major tournament that's a different (and debatable) topic but shouldn't Indian players feature in such lists? Fair enough, the coach, the system, the Federation is all screwed up but why doesn't your name go beyond Arjuna Award?

But somewhere we think small and we contend with small things. And then, when, one wins Arjuna Award or a Dronacharya Award it is sufficient to pave his way with the Government (officials) and we all, being title obsessed ( e.g.: My visiting card may read: Shashank Gupta, xyz Awardee), start saluting an Arjuna Awardee and treat them as demi-Gods.

We have to think big, only then we can achieve that. One thing I know, for sure, is big things are not achieved by dependency on a State, it's achieved by creating a system that's not dependent on freebies and continous non stop grants...

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