Speaking to BBC Urdu, Kuldeep Lal, a journalist in India, says that the performance of the Indian hockey team has not improved overnight but it has made this journey in stages in which the government, sponsors, and the federation have all played an important role. ۔ʹ
While the impressive performances of India's men's and women's hockey teams at the Tokyo Olympics have created an atmosphere of excitement and joy in India, the question has also arisen as to what magic India has finally done to make its hockey a reality once again. Touching the heights? And if India is doing that, then why is its neighbor Pakistan still not able to get out of the decline of hockey and it has gone out of the international mainstream.
Before comparing Pakistan and India hockey, let's take a look at the performance of the Indian team in the Olympics. India's men's hockey team will face Belgium in the semifinals of the Tokyo Olympics on the morning of August 3, currently the world champions and the world number two team. India is currently ranked third in the world. Earlier, the Indian team had defeated Britain in the quarter-finals. In the group stage, they lost to Australia 7-1 after their victory over New Zealand but then lost to Japan, Argentina, and Spain. On the other hand, the Indian women's hockey team has made it to the semi-finals of the Olympics for the first time by defeating favorite Australia.
Long-awaited Olympic medal
Reaching the semi-finals for India's men's hockey team is unusual in that it last reached the semi-finals of the 1972 Munich Olympics, where it beat the Netherlands to win a bronze medal. Although India won a gold medal at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, nine major international hockey teams, including Pakistan, were absent due to the boycott against the Soviet Union. Was successful in winning the medal.
The Indian hockey team's performance has been declining since the Moscow Olympics, and there was a time when it failed to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Her last position at the 2012 London Olympics was her twelfth. She finished 8th at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
How did performance improve?
Harbinder Singh was a member of the Indian hockey team that won a gold medal at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo and now Harbinder Singh is among those who have selected the team that has gone to Tokyo. Speaking to BBC Hindi's Adish Kumar Gupta, Harbinder Singh says that the Indian team did not get a chance to play much this year due to the code. Earlier, he also performed well in the Pro Hockey League and won matches against big teams.
When these teams come to you again, your confidence naturally increases and your morale rises. This is one of the reasons why the team performed so well at the Tokyo Olympics. The team's combination is good and their fitness is very good and because of the code, they have spent most of their time in the training camp in Bangalore which has benefited the players a lot.
Former Indian Olympian and captain of the 1975 World Cup-winning team Ajit Pal Singh told BBC Urdu that when the Indian team came last in the London Olympics, the media wrote condolences calling it the death of Indian hockey. Gone but then India worked hard to bring the performance up Ajit Pal Singh said, "India has never had a bad opinion about why foreign coaches were brought in because we all want to see Indian hockey at the top."
Ajit Pal Singh says that it is a great thing for the Indian team to reach the semi-finals of the Tokyo Olympics because it has competed with the big teams of that time, whereas when it won the Olympic gold medal in 1980, it was only against Spain. ' Ajit Pal Singh says that it is very important for Pakistan to rise again for international hockey because what Pakistan has done in hockey can be written in golden letters. Pakistan has to raise the standard of its hockey again. Have to work hard The world wants to see the traditional hockey of Pak-India again
Speaking to BBC Urdu, Kuldeep Lal, a journalist in India, says that the performance of the Indian hockey team has not improved overnight. ' "When the Indian team was knocked out of the Beijing Olympics and finished last in the London Olympics, the Orissa government took a keen interest in hockey, after which hockey was given full attention in other areas as well," says Kuldeep Lal.
Kuldeep Lal says that the Indian Hockey League has also had a positive impact on Indian hockey. The arrival of foreign coaches also made a significant difference in performance Remember that the current coach of the Indian hockey team is Graham Reid from Australia. Prior to that, Indian Hockey has also benefited from the experience of Australia's Rick Charles Worth, Terry Walsh, Roland Altmans of the Netherlands, and Schwartz Marine. Schwartz Marine is now the women's coach after the men's team.
"Hockey players in India have the full support of the government and the federation," says Kuldeep Lal. Sponsorship exists. There are hockey teams from Railways, Punjab Police, Haryana Police, and other agencies and the hockey budget has increased over time. Indian team travels abroad regularly Kuldeep Lal, who has reported for five Olympics, is deeply saddened that Pakistan has disappeared from the international hockey scene.
"International hockey is incomplete without Pakistan, but sadly we have lost the traditional match between India and Pakistan," he said.
The vow of Pakistani hockey politics
Former Pakistani hockey Olympian Samiullah, speaking to BBC Urdu, says that India has once again made its presence felt at the international level by organizing hockey at the grassroots level. On the contrary, Pakistan's hockey politics The offering went up and today she is ranked 18th in the world Samiullah mentions the names of his two teammates Qasim Zia and Akhtar Rasool. Both of them became the president of the Pakistan Hockey
Federation but both of them did not do much for the development of hockey. Sadly, the Pakistan Sports Board also did not pay attention to whether what is happening in national hockey is right or not. The government did give money to the federation but also invested its people there
Samiullah says that in our time, players used to get permanent jobs in PIA, customs, and banks, but now the teams of these institutions are no more. In WAPDA, players are kept on contract, but the question is, what will a player do if he does not have a permanent job after the end of his career?