Officially declare hockey national game: Dilip Tirkey
By Deep K Datta Ray

NEW DELHI: In the midst of heated and acrimonious arguments in the Rajya Sabha over the demand for a promotion quota for Dalits, former Indian hockey captain Dilip Tirkey managed to draw the attention of the house to his demand to officially declare hockey as the national game of India.

A three-time Olympian and the country’s most capped (412) international, Tirkey, a doughty fullback before his retirement, now a Rajya Sabha member representing the Biju Janata Dal, will, no doubt, have the support of all hockey lovers of the country at a time when the Indian team is showing some good results.

Tirkey, in his brief “special mention” speech, said he was pained when the sports ministry, in response to an RTI query, had said that it had no record to show that hockey was the country’s official national game.

Speaking for himself, Tirkey stated that he had always believed since his childhood days that hockey was the country’s national sport. “How can it be otherwise,” he argued.

India had to its credit eight Olympic gold medals, six of them won in Olympic campaigns without losing a single match. It was through hockey that the world of sports first came to know of India, he pointed out.