A disturbing contrast.

This was written quite some time ago. I was rummaging through the pc when this peeped through a pile of documents and begged for a place in the sacrosanct blog. So there you are, happy reading and of course comments are invited.

India is proud of its diversity and of its unique contrast in almost every aspect of life. This statement reflects the pride in an Indian emigrant’s eyes and is hardly a truth for a resident who lives in the present state of affairs. Where would you find pride when there is hostility between groups; groups which keep on redefining themselves sometimes on the basis of religion, sometimes caste, sometimes language, and sometimes region. It’s such a pity that while a RamSetu bridged two lands, the same is now a device to dig a gulf between people.
However, in this entire chaos one shouldn’t miss the remarkable trait of resilience which an Indian bears on his character. At a time when nothing seems to unite us, a fictional battle on an astro-turf brought forth a new anthem of unification – Chak De! And then a heady and a surreal win in the T20 brought together an entire nation in elevating a bunch of mortals to the pedestal of mythical heroes. As if this were not enough the sensex came round from its phobia of heights and soared to a new high of 17k bringing in its wake a national delirium. It’s really been raining goodies this monsoon!
But allay thy ecstasy. The typical Indian contrast which gets toasted around the world has been extended to the field of sports too.
Amidst this roar of celebration there is a voice of resent. Our hockey players have felt slighted at the ‘step-motherly’ treatment meted out to them. There are enough details in the following to tell you why.

Here are some of the awards announced for the Indian Cricket team for their T20 victory.
Ø Rs 2 crores as a tournament prize.
Ø Rs 8 crores from BCCI for winning the final.
Ø Rs 4 crores from BCCI for reaching the final.
Ø Rs 1 crore for Yuvraj singh from BCCI.
Ø Cash awards upto Rs 21 lakhs from all the governments of states from where the players belong.
Ø Rs 3 lakhs to Uthappa from the Kerala government just for the reason that his mother is from Kerala.
Ø Flats worth Rs 25 lakhs from Sahara.
Ø A new award, 'Jharkhand Ratna' introduced for the first time and presented to Dhoni for making the state proud on the 7th foundation day celebration of the state on November 15 at Ranchi.
Ø Special News Bulletin, Editions and Highlights in almost all the TV news channels through out the night.
Ø Special News Editions, Cover stories and Posters in almost all the News Papers for the next two days.
Ø Heroes' welcome in Mumbai.
Ø Welcome by the Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Deputy CM R R Patil and their Cabinet colleagues.
Ø 30 km long victory procession that lasted over five hours.

We won the Asia cup Hockey a couple of weeks ago.
Specific Features of this victory.
Ø We did not lose a single match.
Ø We defeated the strongest team - South Korea, twice in the tournament - League and Final.
Ø We defeated South Korea in the final by 7-2 which is one of the biggest margins in finals.
Ø We scored in all 56 goals and gave away just 5 goals in the 7 matches that we played.
Ø We scored 20 goals in a single match against Sri Lanka and did not even give away a single goal. This equaled the highest margin of victory in Asia cup record.
Ø We remained the lone team to maintain our slate clean (Rare all-win record at pool stage) among 11 teams and topped the tough six-team Pool B.

Rewards for this victory.
Ø Individual greeting messages by Our Honorable President.
Ø For the news channels and papers, it's just a news.
Ø IHF had announced an incentive for the team where they would receive Rs 1000 for every goal scored, and lose Rs 2000 for every goal conceded.
Ø The state governments did not even sent a congratulatory note.
Ø No Airplanes for them to Travel to their Cities. Only by Local trains, and then by Autorickshaws and Taxis did they reach their Places in Bangalore.

There are various reasons why Hockey and other sports has been discriminated vis-à-vis cricket. Prominent among them is the fact that these are not glamorous and do not attract much viewer ship. Some say that the lack of major wins under their belt is a cause for Indian Hockey’s poor standing in front of cricket. As mentioned earlier, there are a numerous reasons which lead to the same sorry conclusion about hockey in our country, but the question is what needs to be done? Easiest would be to take away the tag of ‘National Sport’ from hockey. That would help in easily disregarding any cribs from the hockey fraternity. But then can we forget that this was the game which brought India 8 gold medals in Olympics, six of them in consecutive editions of the Games. So what can be done?
I think what Indian Hockey needs is a double dose of corporate sponsorship. Political influence would be hard to remove and a parallel League – the kind, of which we are seeing in cricket, might rob away the chance from a player to play for his country. Big corporate sponsorships would increase the required media visibility and popularize the game. One might argue that nobody watches a bunch of losers. But that’s a lie. Every one watches the Indian cricket team play even if it gets badly bruised and beaten. Sponsorships would also mean an access to better training facilities. We shouldn’t be expecting an overnight change in the performance of the team, but certainly that’s the way to go about it. A corporate sponsorship will not just help in getting world class facilities, rewards, and endorsements to the hockey players but would also bring in a lot of responsibility and accountability on the players. Just as the cricket players are mauled for their poor performances, the hockey players who till now were finding criticism in the form of a small editorial paragraph in the newspaper, would now be brought under the spotlight and their poor show would no longer escape the public eye.