Fading Glory......

Sachin, Sourav, Rahul, Gilly, Jayasuriya......                                      
" Current Cricket Players" 

Beckham, Gerrard, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho......                                       
" Current  Football Players"

Schumacher, Raikonnen, Alonso......                                                       
" Formula 1 Drivers"

GaganAjit, Baljeet, Mamtha, Ignace...  ?
 
Who are they........?    Believe me they are current international Hockey players. The fact is that they are Indian players. How many of us know them, We know all other sportspersons than the players who play our national game. We should be ashamed for not knowing them.

We are the team which was undefeated for over a decade and won three consecutive olympic gold medals under the capatincy of Dhyan Chand.  The whole world was stunned by the performance of the Indians under Dhyan Chand. They have done a test to the stick which he used to see whether he used a magnet to get the control of the ball. That great skills he possesed.
The sad fact is that many people don't even know who is this player as they are unaware of the game which is supposed to be our national game..

Last week i got an opportunity to witness the Test Match Series between India and Belgium at Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium in Egmore. Actually I was longing to go there and see my countrymen in action, but was waiting eagerly to get an opportunity which came last week.
My friend Ramanan who was previously informed by Guru, told me about the matches and the location and importantly the admission is 
free (to improve crowd participation). The matches were really good which was played on a green synthetic turf.

The first thing which I noticed there was the empty stands which really frustrated me. Its our national game and no response from the audience. For a cricket match people stand in long queue 
to get the ticket booked well in
advance, but our national game is thrown away.  The most pathetic incident is that people refused to come even when my friends and myself called them to witness the match.

The other pont to be noticed is that these players don't have enough protection on the field. There was a casuality during the first half of the first match where the player was carried in a stretcher with a bleeding nose which we wont see too often in any other outdoor games.

Fine, they play for India and they risk their lives, but what they are paid is a meagre amount when compared with what the other sportsmen are paid. It is only because we don have much interest in this game, the revenue generated is very low and so the players are paid less. I don say that we should not see other games but try to support hockey so that our national game doesn't perish in future.

Ramanan and I have decided to witness all the the sporting action in which our country men participate and few of our other friends also promised to do it. Lets support our country in all the the games which they play  and cheer them to victory............


Cheers!!!!!!!!!