The day hockey took its revenge over cricket in India

INDIA were once a world-beating team in hockey. The record eight gold medals (with six of them in consecutive editions) in the men’s category is yet to be paralleled by any of the modern-day powers, even after 41 years since the Asian side had won their last gold.

But the rich history started fading out as India’s sporting priorities underwent a sea-change. At a time when new powers in hockey started reducing the gap with  traditional powers like India and Pakistan with the advent of new playing surfaces like astro-turf, a revolution called cricket also nailed the prospects of hockey in the country.

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Three years after India won their last Olympic medal (gold at Moscow, 1980) and eight years after they won their only World Cup (1975) in hockey, Kapil Dev’s team did something incredible in England. On a summer morning in June 1983, they shocked reigning world champions in cricket, the West Indies, to lift the country’s maiden World Cup. That event changed the course of India’s sporting history. The victory in a multi-side tournament in Australia two years later where Ravi Shastri received the Audi, cemented the change.

Ravi Kumar Dahiya secures India's 4th medal at Tokyo

India was now a cricket-obsessed country while hockey remained nothing more than an ancestral house – which only made a majestic appeal to the memory but was discarded as a prospect for the future.

A match at the Indian Premier League cricket tournament underway. (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Since 1983, the career graph of cricket in India has only gone up. One more World Cup has come in the one-day internationals in 2011 while one in the Twenty20 format came in 2007. In the junior format, a number of world cups have also come to the country’s trophy closet while in Tests, India have been the No.1 team.

These successes have given cricket a king-like status in India and the cricketers modern-day gladiators. When one adds with those factors like endorsements, viewership, money, luxury, mass appeal, etc., the sport looks unrivalled by all counts. Even a cricketer in India called Sachin Tendulkar ended up getting the country's highest 'Bharat Ratna' Award (the only sportsperson with such feat), while people kept on wondering why a world-acclaimed hockey magician named Dhyan Chand could never get it.

But on August 4, 2021, India witnessed something unique. On the day, the Test series between the men's teams of England and India started at Trent Bridge and the visitors quickly made inroads into the hosts’ innings after they won the toss and elected to bat.

Isn't it incredible that Indians are watching #womenshockey and not #Cricket with #ENGvsIND ?

All the best to #womenshockey?❤️#Tokyo2020 #Olympics2021 pic.twitter.com/FGgpgMDUoP

— Bikram jha (@bikramjha2704) August 4, 2021

But in the public space, people were asking about goals!

Goals in cricket? No, they were asking about the women’s hockey semi-final which was underway between India and Argentina at the Tokyo Olympics. The Indian eves gave an early goal against a strong Argentinian side and the euphoria was more around the women with sticks rather than the men in white in England.

India’s performance at the hockey Olympics this year (the men lost to Belgium in the semis) has been phenomenal. India suddenly has found a lost pride as if a lost child has come back home. The favourite son is the second-preferred one today.

Let it be. Even if for a day.