Whither honour for hockey, football heroes

With reference to the below article, it can only be said that cricket hogs the limelight all the time. It is just not hockey but also football which gets the stepmotherly treatment from the powers that be in our country. Why should cricket, which is not even a proper sport by definition of the word sport be given such undue importance?

Why is hockey and football ignored or treated shabbily is the question that needs a million answers. Indian football team won the Nehru Cup did they get anything as big as the cricket team?

Cricket is played by a dozen nations or so whereas football is a global sport just like hockey. Then why is this nation of one billion people so obsessed with cricket? Is it because it was a colonial legacy that is hard to shake off? Although we drove out the british, we cannot forget their lives, their pastimes?

Ironically, the Chak De slogan now attributed to cricket was taken from the film which was based on hockey. It is indeed a nation of one billion fools.

Being a sportsman myself, I find it saddening and I am almost on the verge of tears that our hockey and football players are treated like this. The issue is not about cricket but about giving the same honour to other sports because a victory is a victory, be it hockey, football or cricket.
Everything should be fair and ethical.


Hurt Indian Hockey players to go on hunger strike

Indian hockey players after winning the Asia Cup

Chennai: Irked by the "step-motherly treatment" meted out to the Indian hockey players by the central and four state governments, the team members have decided to go on a 'hunger strike'. Chief Coach of the national team Joaquim Carvalho was peeved that while title victory of his wards in the Asia Cup was ignored, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and the state governments of Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and Karnataka announced cash awards for the cricketers for winning the Twenty20 World Cup. "Why our hockey players are being treated like orphans and why our politicians are biased against hockey, the national game?" Carvalho asked. He said, "we are grateful ever to the President of India for her sending individual letters congratulating the hockey players for their Asia Cup win, without losing a match."

Carvalho said a coach and four players have planned to go on hunger strike before the Karnataka Chief Minister's house to protest announcement of Rs five lakh cash award each for the members of the cricket team, while "treating the State hockey players like dust". Carvalho said "the Karnataka CM till date has not congratulated hockey players from the state for the Asia Cup win". "Coach Ramesh Parameswaran, manager R K Shetty and four players (Vikram Kanth, V R Rahunath, S V Sunil and Ignace Tirkey) are to go on hunger strike before the Chief Minister's house," he said.

Speaking to Headlines India, former hockey player Hari Lal Kaushik questioned the attitude of the state and India Hockey Federation towards the hockey players. Kaushik said, "The state and Indian hockey federation should have come forward and atleast felicitated the players. Though money won't matters it should have honoured the Asian Cup champions."
source: http://www.headlinesindia.com/