India Post News Service

NEW DELHI: The Indian Hockey has been completely ruled out from the Beijing Olympics 2008. This is a clear indication of how much attention is the sport given in the country. With more of political interference in sports in India, unlike other countries, Indian athletes and sportspersons have to strive too hard to touch international levels and represent the country internationally. Out of frustration and negligence in their own country, they fly away to different nations to get what they deserve. It is vivid from the present scenario at Beijing Olympics.

The event is this time flooded with participants of Indian origin representing, not India, but other countries. Gymnast Mohini Bhardwaj, who won the silver for United States at the 2004 Athens Games, is of Indian origin. Mohini has represented US in two World Championships and competed in the apparatus final on vault twice. Alexi Grewal, a cyclist with roots in Punjab, won the gold in the 1984 Los Angles Olympics. For a very long time, it is being argued in India, that hockey, as a sport, is given a step motherly treatment in the country and is completely overshadowed by cricket. Cricket, which is not originally an Indian game is worshipped in the country, and hockey which is originally an Indian game is left aside.

Although, India has won eight gold medals in Olympics, but these are now history. The last time, the team got gold was in 1980, in Moscow against Spain. Its been 28 years and forget the gold medal, times are such that the team has not even been selected for the tournament. Eight gold medals, four silver medals and five bronze medals is what India has got in its long 118 years’ journey of Olympics. Such is the ignorance of the authorities towards Indian hockey.

Thus, the unsung heroes of hockey in India have gone out to other nations where they have got what they deserved, and are now all set to represent different nations in Beijing Olympics. Kulbir Singh, a Punjabi settled in London, was part of the British team that won the hockey gold in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. He is the first Sikh player to represent Britain’s hockey team in the Olympics. Indian origin players Sukhwinder Singh, Ranjeev Deol, Ravi Kahlon, Bindi Singh Kullar, Wayne Fernandes and Ken Pereira have made it to Canada’s Olympic team. For that matter, even the coach of the Canadian Olympic team, Louis Mendonca, is from Goa.

 The last time he visited his motherland was 1961, but his Goan roots remain strong as ever. Also, adding to the Goan glory, is the fact that not just the coach, but also the assistant coach John De Souza has Goan roots. NRI participation in Canadian hockey dates back to 1963 when Pundit Rai made it to the national team and became the first Canadian to score an international goal.

The ignorance is not just restricted to hockey itself. It prevails with other Olympic games too. India has never won a gold medal in any individual game in the Olympics. The country got two silver medals in 1900, the year it first participated in the Olympics. Norman Pritchard got the silver medal in athletics. There was a long wait of 52 years for India to get a medal in the individual events, and India got the bronze medal in weghtlifting. It was again a long break and in 1996, 2000 and 2004, India got two bronze and a silver in tennis(Leander Paes), weightlifting(Karnam Malleswari) and shooting(Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore) respectively. But the quest for a gold remains. And with Indian born sportspersons representing different countries, we don’t know how long will the quest persist.

Wrestler Sandeep Kumar will represent Australia in the 84-kg class. He created history by becoming the first foreign origin sportsperson to be short- listed for the Australian Olympic contingent. Sandeep migrated to Australia from Sonepat’s Dhanana village in 2004 for better prospects. He drives a cab in Australia, but off late, he has been concentrating completely on wrestling. In 1997, he won a gold medal at the Russian Championship. Sandeep is a three time winner of the Australian Asian Championships. Despite his outstanding record, Sandeep did not get a chance to represent his country.

Even today he feels that he could have made India proud had he be given a chance. Sukhwinder too migrated to Canada in search of better prospects and took to taxi driving. He represented India in the Asian Schools Championship held in Chandigarh in 1994. He migrated to Canada in 1997 and became a citizen of that country two years back.

Former Punjab Police cop Jasveer Singh, who migrated to Canada in 2004, is the first Indian born lifter to represent either Canada or United States at the Olympics. Coach Gurnam Singh is very proud of him and states that Jasveer had to migrate to Canada, for a better life. He first started weightlifting in Grade 9 when his cousin took him to the gym in their hometown of Karnana in the Punjab region of India. It is disappointing to see even the top sports institutes lacking basic requirements of the sportspersons.

The Olympics is just approaching, and the National Institute of Sports, Patiala, where the cream of the country is trained, does not have a physiologist, a psychologist or even a nutritionist. What is all the more disheartening is the favoritism being practiced in the country. Recently, India selected Monika Devi for weightlifting in Olympics, which immediately led to a controversy, with Indian lifter Shailaja Pujari, accusing the Indian Weightlifting Federation of favoritism.

She said she was more deserving than Monika and should have been selected for the Olympics. Such is the irony of the Indian sportspersons. They don’t get their share in their homeland and thus, go searching for the share abroad. Its high time that the Indian authorities realize the importance of sports, other than cricket, or else it’ll very soon lose all the sporty wealth, it bestows.