Hockey in India
Hockey is one of the many sports derived from pre historic man's delight in
stick and ball games. It is a game played between two teams on a field with
curved sticks and a small hard ball. Its birth place was Asia and authorities
credit Persia with having devised it about 2000BC. Modern hockey was created in
England. The true ancestor of hockey was Irish hurling. The first hockey club
was formed in Blackheath in 1861. The first international match was played in
1895 between England and Ireland. In 1908 hockey was included in the modern Olympic Games. The most extra ordinary
aspect of its evolution is that a game once so rough and unruly was adopted by
women.
Hockey became popular in India when the British Regiments played the game in India and introduced it in the
British Indian Regiments who quickly picked up the game. The first hockey club
was formed in Calcutta in 1885-86 followed by Bombay and Punjab. The Bengal Hockey was the first Hockey
Association in India founded in 1908. With the popularity of the game,
associations were formed in different states like Bombay,
Bihar, Orissa and Delhi. In Olympic games India played hockey for the first time
in 1928 held in Amsterdam and won the title. India lifted the Olympic Hockey
Crown for five time in a row. India's first Olympic entry in hockey culminating
in victory gave the Indian Hockey Federation a name and reputation. Dhyan Chand,
Allen, Norris, Pinniger, Yusuf Gateley and Cullen were some of the brilliant
hockey players. Women in India have also been taken up to hockey. Women's hockey
has been included in the Asiad 82. Their standard of play is fairly good. A
series of coaching camps has helped the players attain a commendable standard.
Despite being anointed India's national game, hockey lags far behind cricket and
other games in the popularity stakes. When Indian sportspersons are rapidly
asserting themselves in the world stage, India's hockey fortune is plummeting to
an abyss in the international fora.
During the heydays of Indian hockey,
the national team called the shots in major sporting events, annihilating
opponents with utter disdain. But gradually things took a turn for the worse
with the Indian team failing to keep pace with vastly improving European rivals.
With success being far and few between, hockey is losing out to other
popular sports that have brought India international success.
