India had a glorious past in the history of field hockey as India has eight Olympic titles alongside one world cup title to their credit. However, India’s performance in the world hockey has not been very impressive over the last 2 or 3 decades. The worst came last year when India failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics Games for the first time in its history- that resulted into the suspension of the corrupted elected body of Indian hockey federation by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA). Indian hockey is current run by an ad-hoc committee under the guidance of IOA.
Well, India’s recent performance on the field is pretty much impressive as they became runners up in the Punjab Gold Cup earlier this year and then defeated New Zealand 2-0 in a 4-match test series held in New Zealand. Recently, India won the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup Hockey tournament in Malaysia. Overall, Indian hockey team has been in good form of recent and it looks they are improving gradually. Now, the question remains if Indian hockey is in the right track ahead of next year’s World Cup Hockey tournament which is due to be held in India. Moreover, India will also host Commonwealth Games next year.
India has showed good prospect since the turn of the New Year, but India must ensure they can make the best out of the next year’s world cup and Commonwealth Games at home. Using the two tournaments, people who are now running the game must try to attract the younger generation towards hockey in order to develop the game in the long run in India. Moreover, the performance of India team in the two home tournaments will be very vital for the revival of Indian hockey. So, Indian Olympic Association (IOA), who are currently at the helm of Indian hockey, should take some initiative on this regard so that India could show impressive performance in both the tournaments.
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