Indian hockey team and Virat Kohli's exploits have lifted the national mood
It took a decade coming but the victory of the Indian hockey team in the Asia Cup including a clinical demolition of old foe Pakistan in the semi-final en route to glory is the result, above all, of the commitment demonstrated by our players. The hard work put in by Hockey India coaching, support and administrative-strategic heads to ensure we are on the way to being recognised as a hockey powerhouse once again, however, should not be ignored. India are ranked sixth in the world and are champions of Asia. It was the perfect start for coach Marijne Sjoerd, as the Asia Cup was his first tournament in charge,and he seems to have put together a mentally tough and physically very fit team the augment the traditional skills Indian players have always possessed.
But to understand how a pool of talent was created from which these champions have emerged and which has been the bedrock of the incipient resurgence of Indian hockey, we must go back to November 2013 when the International Hockey Federation, highly impressed by the quality of Hockey India's bids, awarded four major international tournaments to India for the 2014-218 cycle. These included the Junior World Cup (2016), the 2015 and (forthcoming) 2017 World Hockey league Finals and the 2018 World Cup. Since then, there has been a creditable focus on an integrated approach to promoting the structures and support systems needed at the sub-junior, junior and senior levels that is now paying dividends. In 2016, India won the Junior World Cup at home and the seniors, our original ‘boys in blue', made it to the title clash against Australia in the blue-tier Champions Trophy tournament in the UK which was their maiden appearance in the final of the elite tournament,their previous best having been a third-place finish in 1982. So, the win on Sunday at Dhaka was no flash-in-the-pan. Moreover, the recent string of good performances also augurs well for next year's World Cup on home soil though we must be careful not to overburden the team with expectation.
From one team sport, let's move to the role played by individual agency in another team sport that's so beloved in India: Virat Kohli and cricket. The Indian skipper's 31st ODI century in only his 200th game (192nd innings) against New Zealand in Mumbai, also on Sunday,took him past Australian legend Ricky Ponting to second place behind Sachin Tendulkar (49 ODI tons) in the list of maximum tons scored in the limited overs version of the game. And sometimes, statistics do tell the whole story — Ponting needed 365 innings (in 375 matches played) to reach the landmark of 30 ODI centuries which means the man who just overtook him on the list needed 173 innings less to get his 31st ton! That is a mind-boggling achievement, especially given that Ponting was a champion batsman in his own right. If his fitness and form don't desert him, and bar acts of a particularly malevolent God, Kohli is in line to make all major batting records in the limited overs format his very own. And his Test record is equally awe-inspiring so the connoisseurs should be delighted as well.
All of India seemed in an uplifted mood on Monday.