Tokyo Olympics: Hockey is not India's national sport but it should be

The Indian men's hockey team have won a historic bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics which will hopefully usher in a new era for India's erstwhile national game.

The game of hockey, which lost its status as the national game a few years ago, has now been brought back into focus thanks to the unprecedented achievements of the Indian women's team and the exploits of the men's team, who are often unfairly compared to legendary sides of the past.

King only bows down to the bar that raised his standards high! 🙏#HaiTayyar #IndiaKaGame #Tokyo2020 #TeamIndia #TokyoTogether #StrongerTogether #HockeyInvites #WeAreTeamIndia #Hockey pic.twitter.com/3Xb6V1PEa1

— Hockey India (@TheHockeyIndia) August 5, 2021

Despite the euphoria, there continues to be a distant lack of appreciation for the finer aspects of the great sport of field hockey in India.

Awareness about the game is at an all-time low as indicated by a few disturbing developments amidst the ecstasy of a great performance that was put forth by both the Men's and Women's teams in Tokyo.

Rani Rampal and co. surpassed all expectations by qualifying for the knock-out stage and then went a step further by booking themselves a place in the semifinals thanks to a win against might Australia.

While Indian sports lovers should, ideally, have lauded the team and the players for their magnificent effort, the vicious verbal attack directed against the family of one of India's top strikers goes to show how little our countrymen know about the sport today.

After India lost to Argentina in the semifinals on Wednesday, the family of Vandana Katariya - the first player in Olympic history to score a hat-trick - was subjected to verbal abuse, apparently because of the caste they belong to.

While the incident is highly condemnable, it also brings into focus the level of ignorance surrounding the game, as one would have expected the family of the concerned player to be honoured and felicitated given that the team had achieved a lot more than what was expected of them.

The caste angle apart, it also appears that those involved in the misdemeanour have little or no knowledge about women's hockey and how India and Argentina stack up with regard to the rankings and past records.

The Indian men's team have done the country proud by winning a medal after a gap of 41 years while the women's team have defied the odds and the rankings to enter the elite list of nations in the women's game.

The very fact that no other Asian country has managed to do what the Indians did speaks volumes about the kind of effort and dedication that has gone into preparing the current team.

Hockey deserves, without doubt, to be reinstated as India's national game which will go a long way in helping the sport grow and thrive at the grassroots level which in turn would translate into excellence at the international level.