Don’t waste this women’s hockey is a story of the other india
Their tears in Tokyo must not be in vain. The Indian women’s hockey team put up a grand fight before going down 4-3 to Rio champions Britain. But in reaching the Olympic semifinal Rani Rampal, Vandana Katariya, Gurjit Kaur, Savita Punia, Salima Tete, Lalremsiami and co superbly over-achieved. They have pioneered a trail for women hockey players to follow across the country. The bronze slipped by us this time but the dream of a gold tomorrow is now real, except it needs India to up its game.The women come from Haryana, Jharkhand, Manipur, Mizoram, Odisha, Punjab, Uttarakhand, many come from deep poverty, some from Naxal strongholds. They are inspirational examples of the role of scouting sports talent in rural, tribal and other deprived areas, where the hunger for an opportunity is the rawest – and hence the determination to pay even the highest physical toll for it. Catch them young, is the other critical factor. Yet, only 9,025 boys and girls are currently under training at 189 SAI centres. This infrastructure must be seriously expanded.
While the team has got dramatically improved financial and specialist support, we need much more. GoI’s entire sports budget of $350m is less than the $480m Britain has spent on the Tokyo games alone. This should be a much bigger area of corporate focus, with only a telling 2% of CSR funds assigned to sports. A big bang change could be delivered by starting a Women’s Hockey League. Let’s not waste heightened levels of audience interest. That would really be something to cry about.
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