Indian Hockey and Cricket: the more you play, the more you win

By John Cheeran

There is much breast-beating about Indian hockey team's failure to qualify for the Beijing Olympics during the qualifying event in Santiago, Chile. It is the first time Indian team missing out of the Olympics hockey competition.

It is a significant moment. Olympics competition is to hockey, what's a World Cup is for cricket.
But we should pause to note that for Indian hockey, the defining moment had come with the lacklustre gold medal victory in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, which was hit by the the US-led boycott. The decline in Indian hockey had begun immediately after India's World Cup win in 1976 in Kuala Lumpur. India had a disastrous World Cup in Bombay, I guess.

Forget about all that. Do you remember what had happened to Indian cricket team in last year's (2007) World Cup in the West Indies? It was in last March, the entire nation was ablaze with rage when the Men In Blue were dumped into the Atlantic Ocean by Sri Lankans and Bangladeshis. And now the same bunch of players, almost, are feted without a pause after their convincing wins over world champions Australia and runners up Sri Lanka.

How's this revival and turn around of sorts made possible?

Just compare how many international matches Indian cricket team plays in a year and how many Indian hockey team gets to play.

The simple truth is that the more chances you get to play, the more chances you have of winning. This principle has been vindicated recently in Australia. Manipulated by a self-serving Indian media, the nation is given only the winning moments in the performance chart.

Don't cry. Killing K.P.S. Gill will not resolve Indian hockey's crisis. Let them play more and more, much like these cricketers, and some how, some where, they will win some silver ware.

And we will keep our tirangas ready to unfurl.

Long live Indian Hockey!