How many countries have Sport Day?

Even if so, how many of them take it so seriously that the Constitutional head of the country confers sports awards to selected few on this day?

And, how many countries the Sports Day is celebrated on the birth anniversary of a sportsperson?

Indian polity and society owes our sincere salute for giving us a Sports Day and then marking it on the birth anniversary of all time great hockey player Dhyan Chand.

Yes, today, the 29th August 2009, President of India, will confer various awards to meritorious but a selected few sports persons.

It feels nice.

The good part of the story ends the obverse side starts.

Recently, I was part of Hockey Quiz program conducted in a chain of schools by a NGO called Hockey Citizen Group. One of the question the quiz master posed constantly in those sessions to the children of age 6-12 pertained to National Sports Day.

90 percent of children — they are from top ranked schools — are not aware of it and almost 95 percent the occasion they are not at all in the konw that Sports Day is related to a hockey player called Dhyan Chand.

If memory is correct only one girl student out of hundreds of kids we interacted in that week gave a correct reply.

So, it is obvious where we stand today.

Sports, the Olympic variety, it seems to me, is confined to some select sports groups, training centres, and not gone to the public domain at all

On a longer mission, this needs to be corrected with right policy decisions at curriculam level.

If Indias political establishement accords such a great importance to hockey, even celebrating the sports day on a hockey player’s name and then one of the awards itself is named after the great player, those involved in hockey need to introspect.

The best way to show respect to the departed soul, and the only way to immortalize the great is to bring hockey to the centre-stage.

Unfortunately nowadays those in hockey circle waste time in politiking.

There are warring groups, groups within groups, at one point of time every group vied with each other to bring the discredited KPS Gill into their lobby giving a clear picture what is in the mind of the power seekers.

There are still groups and lobbies who support KPS Gill’s coterie like Haryana and UP, State Associations, according to them only Gill can save hockey!!

But none of these faction spared their time and money to do something to celebrate the greatest occasion — the birth anniversary of a great hockey player, Dhyan Chand.

For them Dhyan Chand, Sports Day, nothing matters. Its power that is all they want.

They are ready to spend lacs of rupees on court cases, parties, press conferences — all that can never lift hockey an inch from the depth to which it is cast. They don’t have idea, money and time to spend on this day.

Ever since India failed to qualify for the Olympics, every press meet was organized lavishly and in costly hotels. This is common to every faction in the reckoning. There is time and money for such things — not for real hockey.

Imagine a situation that all three groups vying for hockey power organize separate Sports Day and the media is confused as to which one it would attend!

Sorry, Dhyan Chand Dada, this is real India.

The awards bestowed on Dhyan Chand

Padma Bhusan
Major
King’s Commisssion