Hawking hockey
Sunday night’s thrill-a-minute contest contained everything you’d expect from an India-Pakistan hockey match: loads of skill, plenty of pace, four Indian goals, two Sohail Abbas bullets that pounded off the crossbar with enough power to make stomachs churn and a wall of sound that shook the refurbished National Stadium’s foundations. Great win, stunning atmosphere.
Now watch the tape again if you get a chance: look past the hysteria, ignore the obvious excitement that comes with an adrenaline-pumping win such as this, and see if you spot something seldom seen in India-Pakistan contests. Notice the empty seats? Not just the few you see sprinkled around the stadium because someone’s inexplicably gone out for a cup of tea, but larger chunks of them, painted green and white, and looking decidedly unwarmed.
For over two decades now, there’s been a running debate in and around the hockey circles: not just on what’s required to halt Indian hockey’s rapid decline, but also what’s needed to get hockey back into the nation’s sporting consciousness on a more permanent basis, not just when Olympic years come around.
In India and Pakistan, it’s increasingly obvious that there’s a young generation brought up on European football, that passionately supports Manchester United or Liverpool; a generation that does look beyond cricket. They, and the die-hard, nostalgic hockey supporters, should ensure that the stands are reasonably full through the coming days but too much has been left riding on how far the hockey teams progresses in the subcontinent. It needn’t have been that way.