Former greats hit back at Pataudi
Hockey deserves to be national game

Former Indian captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudis suggestion to replace hockey with cricket as the national game has come in for sharp criticism from country’s Olympians.

“It is sad and unfortunate to belittle hockey, a game that gave gold medals since 1928 in Olympics. It is true that the standard of game has fallen, but sincere efforts will lift the game back to its glorious past. The media and the government both have to work together to lift the game,” Manohar Topno, who represented India in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, said.

Topno also feels that had hockey received half the attention cricket got from media and government, the game certainly would have flourished to a greater extent.

Pataudi recently said in an television talk show that it is time to make cricket India’s national game given the Indian team’s performance.
Another Olympian and member of India team which played in the 1980 Moscow Games, Sylvanus Dung Dung thinks such a step would be insulting to the game and also would belittle the contribution made by players like Dhyan Chand and Jaipal Singh Munda.

“Cricket is no doubt a popular game, and we have to respect the game for that. But berating hockey is an insult to its glorious past… We should all, including former past cricketers, should work for the uplift of the game,” Sylvanus, the former right-half said.

Former hockey skipper Jude Felix was also against making cricket the national game. “I don’t know how that’s going to help. “Cricket, no doubt, has overtaken all sports in the country. Hockey, however, was identified as India’s national game because it brought laurels to the country and the game is played all over the world,” Felix told PTI.

Felix said: “If you come in top six with so many countries playing ..I think it’s quite creditable.”

Felix also believes that India’s hockey players have enough talent to make it to the top of the world and said: “If there is a good, strong coaching staff, I have no doubt in my mind that India can go to the top again as there is a lot of talent.”

Former captain of India’s women’s hockey team, Savitri Purti, also thinks that cricket could never replace hockey as the national game because it was yet to become an Olympic sport.

Courtesy: Agencies