Charanjit Singh was India’s captain. And Harbinder Singh scored that brilliantly conceived field goal. Or was it the other way round? Doesn’t really matter.  The more important point: It was India’s moment of glory.

The year was 1964.  And you guessed it right. I am talking about the hockey final India played against Pakistan at the Tokyo Olympics. That solitary goal won the country its only gold medal in the 1964 Olympics.  The victory also reclaimed for the country the hockey gold that it lost to Pakistan at the previous Olympics in Rome. Schools in Delhi declared a holiday the following day in celebration of the India victory.

You might wonder why I am talking about Indian hockey at a time the world including India is gloating over soccer.  Well, simply because, quite unnoticed by you all, Indian hockey has seen a revival of sorts. In Kuala Lumpur, while playing the prestigious Sultan Azlan Shah hockey tournament, India thrashed Malaysia 5-2 and then blanked out Korea 3-0, before, of course, bowing out of the tournament 0-1 in the semi-final match with the Netherlands.

All this happened over the last one week. The question I have for you is: Did you see even once any reference of any of the Indian hockey matches on the front pages of any Indian newspaper? Do you know who is captaining the Indian hockey team? Or who scored those goals? How can you? Because the front pages of Indian newspapers and the television news channels are all full of what Brazil is doing to Croatia or what Portugal is up to in the World Cup soccer being played in Germany.

I have no problem if newspapers and television channels are full of World Cup soccer coverage. But then, why ignore Indian hockey when it defeated Korea or Malaysia on the latter’s home ground? And then complain why a nation of billion people cannot produce a soccer team that could take part in the World Cup? Worse, odious comparisons are made. A well-known columnist compared Togo’s GDP with India’s and argued how an economically more powerful country like India failed to produce a soccer team which could qualify for the World Cup finals, while Togo could.

True, our sporting federations are controlled and run by politicians and as a nation we have failed to produce many world-class sportspersons. But it is time we looked within and asked ourselves if as a nation we have learnt to honour and celebrate the few heroes we could produce in the past. 

Schools in Delhi were closed a day after India won the hockey Olympic gold in Tokyo.  What did we do in 1975? Yes, in case you forgot, India won the World Cup hockey that year in Kuala Lumpur. I still remember that gem of a goal by Aslam Sher Khan.Those were the days of All India Radio’s running commentaries by Saradindu Sanyal in English and  Jasdev Singh in his melodramatic Hindi.  

But schools were not closed the following day. Nor was there any celebration as such.  Newspapers condescended to feature the news on their front pages. But Indians were not on the streets to celebrate the victory. Compare this with what happens in Brazil. The schools remain closed, the courts suspend their work and almost the entire nation remains glued to television sets or throng the stadia where eleven Brazilians battle for the country’s honour in the World Cup.

In 1975, India had the reputation of a country like Brazil today. Seven Olympic hockey gold medals (six of which were won consecutively) in one sport is a matter of pride for any nation.  Yet, what did we do to maintain and improve our dominance in that sport?

Well, if you ask me, we appointed retired cops and out-of-power politicians to head our national sporting bodies and hoped that we would continue to produce world class sports persons and world-beating teams. These heads of sporting bodies knew neither the business of sports to exploit its commercial aspects to further the game’s prospects nor were correctly focussed on promoting the game in the country.

If you don’t believe me, check out what is happening with the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB). This time, not a retired cop, but Calcutta’s police commissioner is supported by West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in the former’s battle for winning the elections for the post of president of CAB.

Nothing could be more preposterous than this. A serving police officer may soon be heading the West Bengal state cricket association. His candidature is being supported by the chief minister of a state that is ruled by the Left. And if you want to add some excitement, the cop is all set to get the support of the deposed India captain Sourav Ganguly!