Spoiler Alert. If you have little or no interest in
field hockey – yes, it IS our national game – then this post is not for you. Am
tempted to throw in a few expletives here, but hell, to each his own, I guess.
Me and my son Sid, we’ve always been great sports
buffs. Even as a toddler playing `gully’ football, he’d name himself Platini or
Cruyff (Pele was far too common for his esoteric tastes), much to the surprise
of my fellow officers. Of course I was proud!
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| Sid's selfie with Dilip Tirkey |
At the first match of the Champions Trophy, he ran
into Dilip Tirkey during the half time break.
“You recognised him?” I asked incredulously. “Of
course!” he replied, “I even clicked a selfie with him!” I was delighted!
But wait. I’m getting ahead of myself.
Field hockey, our national sport, was for years, the
only medal hope for India at the Olympics. Between 1928 to 1964, we won 7 of
the 8 Gold Medals on offer, losing only in 1960 to Pakistan. Who can forget the
1964 Tokyo Olympics, where we beat Pakistan by a solitary goal scored by
Mohinder Lal. Pakistan piled on the pressure, but the great Shankar Laxman in
goal stood like a rock. Incidentally, other than Lal and Laxman, all the remaining nine players of that
team were sardars!
Apart from the Olympics, the Hockey World Cup was
started in 1971, and the Champions Trophy in 1978. The Champions Trophy has the
top eight teams in the world competing with each other, and is naturally a
treat to watch.
India was to host the 2014 edition of the tournament
at the newly built Kalinga Stadium at Bhubaneswar. Since Bhubaneswar happens to
be my sasural, I grabbed the opportunity.
Sid and I decided to witness all the matches.
We managed VIP passes, courtesy my wife’s nephew, and
were all set.
The eight teams were split into two pools of four
teams each – Pool A had Australia, England, Belgium and Pakistan, while Pool B
featured Holland, Germany, Argentina and hosts India.
The tournament draw was a bit odd. All 8 teams were already assured
places in the Quarter Finals – the pool matches were only to decide the
placings, ie who would meet whom in the Quarters.
Strange as it may seem, the two teams who finished at
the bottom of their pools, ie Pakistan and Germany, were the ones who met in
the finals! Naturally, there was a huge criticism of how the whole tournament
had been drawn up, as teams received no benefits from the points earned in the
league phase!
Other than India, Pakistan was the team that was
cheered most – when browns play goras,
we brownies tend to team up!
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| All smiles after beating Belgium! |
While the non-India matches were thinly attended, the
stadium was packed whenever India took the field. To hear the 7000 crowd sing
the national anthem in tandem with the 15 players lined up in the India blues
behind the tricolour is enough to give anyone goose bumps!
India were to meet Pakistan in the semis. We reached
the stadium two hours in advance, as there wasn’t an inch of space available
anywhere. As the Pakistani greenshirts entered the stadium, there was a huge
round of applause, only out decibeled by the roar that went up when Sardar and
his boys entered, in their traditional sky blue jerseys.
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| The SF line up India vs Pak |
Watching an India Pakistan hockey match in a jam
packed stadium should be on everyone’s bucket list. Sid and I had managed to
interact with both teams at their hotels the previous day, and were licking our
lips in anticipation.
It was a nail biter. We scored first, they equalised.
Then they took the lead twice, we equalised twice. Then, in the last quarter,
we did everything but score. Then, to our horror, and totally against the run
of play, they scored with barely a minute to go. The stadium went into a
stunned silence. The final hooter sounded. We had lost 3-4!
The Pakistani players were understandably jubilant.
But what they did next shocked us to the core. While two of them fell to their
knees in prayer, the others went berserk. Ripping off their shirts, they
screamed obscenities at the crowd, showing middle fingers, and gesticulating as
if to say `Ab kyun chup ho gaye?’
In a word, it was disgusting. Shahnaz Sheikh, their
coach, had to run onto the field to curb them. He even slapped an over
enthusiastic Amjad Ali who was doing something unmentionable.
What a contrast to the last India Pakistan match I had
witnessed at Bombay in 1976. Then, the Pakistan captain Islauddin had won 60
thousand Indian hearts when he and the team threw rose petals into the stands!
Nobody, just nobody had grudged them their 1-0 victory over Bhaskaran’s Indians
that day!
“Pa” said Sid to me as we wound our way out of the
stadium “I was all set to root for Pakistan in the finals. Not any more!” he
shook his head in disbelief.
In the finals that followed, so roundly were the
Pakistanis booed, and so heartily did the crowd back Germany, the Germans felt
they were playing in Munich rather than Bhubaneswar.
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| It doesn't get any better! |
That nasty bit apart, we had witnessed a great
tournament, seen some terrific hockey, met some of the greats of the game, and
came away totally satiated!
The 2018 World Cup, with 16 teams, is once again
scheduled to be held In India. At the very same Kalinga Stadium at Bhubaneswar.
Will we be there? Insha Allah!!
Hockey rules! Give me Sardar Singh over Dhoni, anyday…
How do I plan to ring in the New Year? Wrapped up in a
quilt, watching TV, I suppose. Age has its downside, sigh! I remember the
Dordarshan days where the 31st December programming was special. Now
with the proliferation of TV channels that are indistinguishable from each
other, it’s one big mish-mash.