India won’t be playing hockey in the Olympics for the first time in 80 years. I think we had it coming and now the nation will sit up and take notice of what is happening to the national sport.

I don’t understand the mentality of people running sport in India. All they talk about is how much money they can generate to take sport forward. But I hope one day it will be about what fans are saying and what they want to do for the game, what they think of it and how much should be allocated where.

After India's cricketers came back from their first-ever one-day series win in Australia, every official connected with the sport from every remote angle was sitting alongside the players milking the publicity. Shame on those people who made the most of the victory parade. That wasn't about the game or players, that was about politics.

'The demise of the sport will make the back pages for a week and then people will get back to their jobs again'


You do not need officials to take sport forward. If that was the case, India would have had a hockey Olympic gold by now.

The blame game against Indian hockey chief KPS Gill is a scapegoat tactic. For years players and fans have been crying foul against him. And what were the game's governing body doing then?

Spot the difference; the cricketers get an audience with the PM for the Twenty20 victory - but what happens when a national sport loses face and no-one is interested? Can we surmise that the powers-that-be like cricket but hate hockey?

It is pointless arguing how good players like Dhanraj Pilay are, or how the World Hockey Federation make an agenda which was unreadable or beyond Gill and his team's understanding.

There has never been a lack of quality in Indian squads. What is lacking is application and transparency in their attitude and evolution of the game. But the reality is the national sport has fallen flat on its face.

The demise of hockey will make the back pages for a week and then people will get back to their jobs again. But the fact remains that the system will not change.

Indian hockey does not need corporate and media money and hype. It needs some quality treatment of the sport. It won’t be long before hockey ends up like football where we even cannot even do well in Asia.

Put bluntly, unless the system changes I don’t see any future for hockey.