By K.Datta, IANS
New Delhi : “Why should hockey players be made to look beggarly?” asked Leo Pinto with not a little anger.
The 93-year-old former goalkeeper of the gold medal-winning Indian team at the 1948 London Olympic Games, perhaps the oldest living hockey Olympian in the world, was reacting from his Kolkata residence to the resentment of Joaquim Carvalho, coach of the present Indian team which won the Asia Cup at Chennai earlier this month, at hockey not getting due recognition and reward.
The coach had come out with his views even as India’s Twenty20 World Championships winning squad was being awarded a hero’s welcome at Mumbai on its return from Johannesburg, South Africa.
Agreeing with Carvalho, Pinto said, “It was through hockey that India first came to be recognized in the world of sport. Why this kind of poor treatment? This is not fair. Why should cricket alone get so much attention? All sporting achievements should be treated on a par.”
In Delhi, Commander Nandy Singh, Pinto’s teammate at London, had much the same to say.
“It is after a long time that the Indian hockey team is looking up again under Carvalho, and the impressive Asia Cup victory in which India scored a runaway 7-2 victory over Korea was a suitable occasion to offer the team encouragement and reward,” Nandy Singh said.
But, leave alone reward in cash or kind, he was sorry to say there was not even a word by way of congratulation or encouragement from our sports minister.
Nandy Singh, who not long ago was honoured by the government with the Dhyan Chand Award for lifetime service to sport, feels hockey needs to be administered more imaginatively and aggressively, and professionally marketed.
Comparisons with cricket are not quite appropriate, according to him, but even encouraging gestures are missing for hockey players, he added. If this is the attitude towards hockey then he was afraid it he did not see a bright future for the game.
Ashok Kumar, member of the 1975 World Cup-winning team, also expressed support for Carvalho’s strong views.
But, Ashok pointed out: “The hockey federation is also not free of blame. It should have found ways of suitably felicitating the Asia Cup-winning team at Chennai itself. It missed a great opportunity of bringing the hockey team’s success into the public consciousness.
“The Tamil Nadu chief minister sat through the Chennai final and it did not cross his mind to offer suitable reward for the team. He could have been approached in the matter.”
Harbinder Singh, veteran international centre-forward, also regretted the shabby treatment of the hockey players.
He did not grudge the cricketers being showered with rewards, but, at the same time, shared the hurt of Carvalho and his players.
The simmering discontent and bitterness has now boiled over. Carvalho will soon have to get down to work with his players with an eye on the qualifiers in Chile. With resentment being so openly voiced against perceived discrimination and injustice how does he motivate his men?