Growing popularity of the Cricket in India is the main cause for other sports to lose their charm. Sports like hockey, tennis, and football are losing popularity among the audience. Even the government is neglecting other sports including hockey as cricket fetches more revenue than all other sports combined.

Hockey, the national game of India, is now slowly being neglected. Because of fewer sponsors, people are not finding interest in Hockey. However, Hockey, as many of us are unknown about its facts, has a golden history in India.

Golden Era of Hockey
Hockey in India was introduced by British. It was when the British army regiments played the game; the Indian regiments also picked up the game and then followed the tradition of playing the game of hockey. Then gradually this game was adopted by the masses.

Hockey in India saw its first ever in house hockey club in Calcutta, which was formed in the year 1885-86, then followed the formation of hockey clubs in Bombay and Punjab. Slowly and gradually, this game gained its importance amongst the masses and more and more people started playing it.

In between 1928 and 1956, India won six consecutive gold medals in the Olympics, and won all 24 matches played. There were some legendary players in the history of Hockey in India that includes Dhyan Chand, K.D. Singh, Dhanraj Pillay and Dilip Tirkey.

Present Condition of Hockey
In the present scenario, cricket is more important. There are many forms of cricket and each form is more beneficial for the country’s GDP. The Income Tax, excise, and other similar departments are happy, and so are the players.

Sponsors are showing interest only in cricket, because they have the guarantee of returns. This makes other sports fund less. Media also popularizing only cricket, as if other games do not exist at all.

Being our national sport, hockey should get special importance. It should not be neglected. There are people who are interested in hockey, but are not getting required support, coaching, and motivation. Government should encourage all sports equally to make India all-rounder.

If government takes special interest, then definitely sponsors will also come. However, when approached it said that it does not have enough funds to conduct an international level tournament of Hockey in India. However, it does have several millions to offer to the cricket team after each match.