India should stop ‘bleeding’ their rival players
No Indian may have earned a red card in the ongoing Junior World Cup –that credit went to Pakistan – but produced a lot of red on the turf, virtually.
Two Netherlands’ players on the first day, and then a Canadian on Saturday bled profusely, the culprits being current ‘Indian style’ of playing.
Being a game wrought with danger as sticks and body collide often, innumerable rules have been framed or altered to avoid players getting injured, and the coming of so many gadgets too aims at this.
Yet, if players don’t follow established decency and maintain a degree of ethics, rules and gadgets cannot help.
This is the kind of impression one gets if impartially analyse these specific incidents.
If you stick gets stuck up in others, or gets entangled with the other, the first job of any player is to see what happens, and tries to retrieve politely as the situation demands.
Mandeep Singh did not do that against Netherlands, he kept on pulling, and then allowed a heavy follow through, which swept across the face of the rival, all the while keeping his eyes on the other side where he intended to move. Its a reckless hockey
So what if the other player bleed profusely.
On another occasion, umpire had to be called, an official had to rush and sterilize the spot on the turf which saw a player spil blood after suffering a hard tackle.
The offender may have got away with a couple of minute suspension, as the match did not last minimum time of punishment an yellow card carries.
But this leaves a bad taste.
India is host, and is expected to be polite, gentle, and at least consider the others are also in the competition and need to be compassionate. This is not just expected, mandatory too.
This world cup is for juniors, a degree of exuberance is expected.
However, the perpetrators involved in all these three incidents referred to, are Indian players who had already played considerably at senior level, that is why the incidents need to be recalled, and the players concerned need to be condemned.