This definitely had not been the reward the Indian hockey team had been expecting after they beat Argentina on Wednesday. India’s foray into the semifinal of the eight-nation Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament in Malaysia happened hours after the government announced hockey’s demotion from ‘Priority’ to ‘General’ sport. Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, Mani Shankar Aiyar told Parliament that this decision had been arrived at after taking cognizance of ‘the continuous poor performance of the Indian hockey team in all major tournaments in the recent past’.

The demotion of the national sport of the country is crucial as it will entail decrease in funding from the government. This would lead to a fall in the number of foreign tours and preparatory camps, among other things.

Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) chief K.P.S. Gill, when asked about how he felt after coming to know of the decision, retaliated by saying that the government had not done anything for the upliftment of the game and yet they had their own criterion to demote it to ‘General’ level. The IHF said it was unfair that hockey was downgraded merely on the basis of the performances in the last Commonwealth and Asian games.

When Ministry officials were enquired about the need to pass such an unfavorable decision against the national sport of the country, I. Srinivas, joint secretary, sports ministry, said: ‘No one can rob hockey of its pride of place. We are only sending a strong signal to the IHF. The ministry feels that Indian hockey needs to be provoked into improving.’

While the entire episode seemed to be one of those blame games often indulged in by politicians, it was the national sport that suffered at the end of the day. Certainly, precious little has been done to uplift the game which gave us heroes like the great Dhyan Chand and Dhanraj Pillai.