India's victory at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup has proved that the drought in Indian hockey is over.
India's victory at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup has proved that the drought in Indian hockey is over. After a 13-year-long wait, India finally clinched its fourth Azlan Shah title at Ipoh. By defeating the hosts Malaysia 3-1, we have shown our supremacy.
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The trophy is ours: The Indian hockey team poses with the trophy after it won the Sultan Azlan Shahu00a0tournament. |
The scorers for India were Arjun Halappa, Prabhjot Singh and Shivender Singh. Coach in-charge Harendra Singh delighted in the fact that he had guided his team to their first triumph since he took over from Australian coach Ric Charlesworth. Sandeep Singh won the tournament's Top Scorer Award. He scored six out of the 12 goals the Indian team scored during the tournament. Arjun Halappa was declared Best Player of the Tournament.
Time to give backIt brings great joy and pride to see our national hockey team win the Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey tournament after a long gap of 13 years. This accomplishment, however, should not go in vain as it has on several other occasions.
Hockey has always taken a backseat to cricket in our country and has not received its due importance. The last time our team won an international event, they were not even paid properly.
Yet, we cannot blame only the authorities all the time for the way our national sport is treated. We've too have let it down. We watch only cricket. While I do not wish to take anything away from the achievements of our cricketers, it's true that we fail to acknowledge the achievements of our hockey team.
The failure of our hockey team to qualify for the 2008 Olympics should have left us devastated; instead no one gave it any importance.
It would have been a different story if the Indian cricket team had not qualified for the World Cup. It is high time we began to show some respect for our national sport.
