Once again, India apparently lost in Hockey. The same Hockey which is our national game. The same Hockey which we apparently were pioneers long time back, probably when American car-makers were making profits. Once again, we see people criticizing companies for sponsoring only cricket, some of them criticize "babus" [ government officials ] for corruption, some people asking for more funds to be allocated for Hockey, increasing players' salary etc. I say, Let Hockey Die.
SPONSORSHIP FOR HOCKEY
I am not a fan of Hockey. I have never played it in my life and hardly have watched it a few times. But thats not the point. Well, actually that is the point. The reason why cricket is popular is not because sponsors are ready to sponsor the game. But it is the other way round. More people like cricket, get entertained by cricket and are ready to part with their money for cricket. There is a market for cricket. Yes, market is the operative word for sponsorship unless have a personal gain to act likewise. The people asking companies to sponsor Hockey is similar as me asking you to take Person-X to Aragawa for lunch every day. I wont complain neither will Person-X. Will You ?
SUCCESS AND FAILURE QUOTIENT
People attribute lack of funds to fall of hockey and fall of hockey to lack of funds. The dreaded vicious cycle, you know. Well, India was never a top-dog in world cricket until recently. It was only in 2000s that a certain Sourav Ganguly captained Indian Team to a whole new level. Why did cricket survive until then ? English are foot-ball crazy but they are never that top-team in the world. A more obvious example is Africa where people are crazy about football. Their national teams are definitely no where near the best. Yes, success can bring people but that doesn't mean, success alone would bring people to watch a sport. How many of us actually have watched even one game of Vishwanathan Anand ? or Pankaj Advani ? Maybe, even behind every successful sportsman, there is a woman. But not viewers and market.
GOVERNMENT FUNDING HOCKEY
The very reason why Hockey doesn't generate enough funds is because people are not interested. Any government intervention would ONLY result in re-allocation of funds: from what people desire to what they are forced to have; which in this case is watching Hockey ! It is very similar to passing an ordinance tomorrow according to which all the money that people spend on onions would be taken away and will be used to for development of Hockey. Food without onion ? Bad Idea, me says !
QUALITY OF PLAYERS
Some people ask why Indian Hockey was successful previously and not now. There might be various contributing factors. Cricket might have taken away the funds and talent away from Hockey. Other Teams might have improved. The way hockey is played might have changed. People might now be more interested in becoming lawyers or engineers than Hockey Players. Or simply, there might have been better players by chance before. Most often people assume that lack of money in a particular game would inevitably result in sub-standard players. If that was the case, then we would not be having Vishwanathan Anand, Pankaj Advani, Clint Dempsey etc.
CONCLUSION
Lets allow the market and hence people to decide whether Hockey should survive in India as a sport or not. If people are not interested in Hockey, then so be it. Let it die - Deje a Hockey Morir. Else, I would want funding of Indian American-Football Team. Go Gators, errrr, Go Indians.
Agree or dis-agree with my views ? Drop in your shout in comments section.
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8 comments:
rajyavardhan singh rathore's desparate measure to force ppl into watching hockey with his "warna,kaafi acha nishana hai" dialog was in itself the turning point to the demise of indian hockey according to me :D
I partly agree and disagree with you,that success and failure decides interest,that interest of public plays its role for the game's success is true.
However I definitely feel government should support the game and give it more funding .
Viswanathan Anand started playing chess as avocation ,not as vocation.He also works as Manager for one of the Government banks.(i dont rem which one).And if you look at the game it doesnt require the physical exertion a hockey game needs.For somebody to play hockey at international level,he needs to play/practice this game for 12hrs atleast 75% of the non-playing days.In order for him to make this effort hockey needs to be a vocation for him.
Now forget all those ,between you and me we like blogging,but why dont we blog often and why arent our blogs consistently good ,because it doesnt feed us utimately,so our commitment/effort to this past time is causal.
anyways long one,but I see my blog on this coming soon ;-)
@ Shashank
"However I definitely feel government should support the game and give it more funding ."
What can I say ! Why shouldn't government "support" Ice Hockey, American Football etc etc ? I hope you understand what you mean by "government supporting the game". It just means taking money from people "by force" and re-allocating it Hockey; which is something people wouldn't do other-wise.
"And if you look at the game it doesnt require the physical exertion a hockey game needs.For somebody to play hockey at international level,he needs to play/practice this game for 12hrs atleast 75% of the non-playing days.In order for him to make this effort hockey needs to be a vocation for him."
Vishy would need to practice a LOT. Forget all that, in simple terms, choosing hockey as a profession is a BAD career choice, just like choosing baseball in India, cricket in NZ, football in canada, kabbadi in usa etc.
"Now forget all those ,between you and me we like blogging,but why dont we blog often and why arent our blogs consistently good ,because it doesnt feed us utimately,so our commitment/effort to this past time is causal."
Wrong analysis. There is nothing to tell that if we put 2x man-hours into our blog, our blogs would be better or if we put half the man-hours, our blogs would be worse off. Only if we take up blogging as a career path, we will know, how it works out. Now, you bring this up, why shouldn't government "fund us" so that we become bloggers ? :D
"There is nothing to tell that if we put 2x man-hours into our blog, our blogs would be better or if we put half the man-hours, our blogs would be worse off" thats the point,once blogging becomes our bread and butter..we dont put in terms of x or 2x hours.do we ..?
"why shouldn't government "fund us" so that we become bloggers ? " exactly thats the point ,if government put in any efforts to patronize ours blogs(funds ,using its long reaching hands to advertise our efforts etc) ,wouldnt we be more interested to make it worthwhile..?
@ Shashank
"if government put in any efforts to patronize ours blogs(funds ,using its long reaching hands to advertise our efforts etc) ,wouldnt we be more interested to make it worthwhile..?"
What can I say ! More flaws in your argument. Let me give you clues :
i) Where and How would government get money to fund our blogs ? Is that a "honest and proper" channel ?
ii) More interested ? Really ? Have you ever been to a government office ?
iii) Even if we assume that we become more interested, does it ensure "quality output" ?
Well am not a hockey fan or anything to say something about deepcore stuffs but
If aresnal loses for about 3 or 4 matches would you not still support them.Same is the case here.
@ Vasuki
You completely missed the point. The argument here is not about winning at all. Its about "people seeking government intervention" and debunking theories like more money implies better quality, bad results are causing downfall in hockey [ which your post itself debunks now ]..
The issue is siphoning off people's money in the name of Hockey; AGAINST the flow of the market.
Regarding the Tharoor business, he deserved the sack. The 7% sweat equity is something unheard of for the kind of vaguely defined services that Sunanda Pushkar was going to render to the franchise and it was clear as daylight that this had more to do with Tharoor flexing his muscles to lobby for their group than any PR services that they were getting.
Now armed with hindsight, the immediate return of the sweat equity and then Tharoor marrying Pushkar a few months thereafter don't really do any favours to Tharoor's stance either.
I agree that he is suave and had an air of dynamism and authority about him when he broke into the political scene but good personality and education and experience can not be a substitute for lack of personal integrity.
No politician takes money for illegitimate services and then keeps the money in a bank account under his own name. Most of the shady deals are done with the benefactor's being immediate family of the politician who receive these benefits for scant and vaguely defined reasons.
Yes, there are a lot of other politicians who are in their plum posts despite having taken the country for a much bigger ride than the mere seventy crores that Tharoor seemed to want for himself. And Tharoor's lack of political capital did make sure that he couldn't keep his secrets hidden. But, that shouldn't be an excuse for what he has done or get him condoned by any means.
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