India displayed unheard of performance in recent years to thrash a hapless Korean team 7-2. In a display of stellar hockey that left everyone, including their worthy highly placed opponents South Korea, shocked and awed.It was one of the finest displays I have ever seen by an Indian team in a long long time. It was one of the best team performances where each member contributed equally for the success and the ruthless fashion it was achieved. Though the man of the match award was given to Baljit singh for his outstanding performance as the goalkeeper, I felt every member of the team deserved to be awarded. There was no man of the match but men of the match in the Indian team that day.
After the match was over I turned to news channels, to listen what they have to say about the victory. It was then, to my dismay, I learnt for the first time in my life winning comes from motivation and not sweat. All the channels were contesting each other to give Shah Rukh Khan’s interview than giving prominence to the coach who made it possible for India to win.
The manner in which the news channels, one by one, aired his interview it was evident that they wanted to prove it was due to SRK India won the match or at least a major chunk of the credit of winning belonged to him. The real man behind Indian team’s victory, Joaquim Carvahlo, remained a distant second to the reel star. I did not see a single interview featuring Mr Carvahlo, in all the news channels that gave prominence to SRK. After the initial shock subsided, the interviews did not surprise me because by then I realized Mr Carvalho was not an icon or for that matter any of the team members that won the cup.
I am not blaming SRK and he also kept on saying in all the telephone interviews that it was the team, the coach and their effort that won the Asia cup. But the channels wanted to prove otherwise for the simple reason the hockey players and coach are lesser gods compared to a reel hero. Biggest problem with our country is we do not know how to honour our real heroes, but when it comes about cricketing icons and film stars, we lavish the praise even when they do not deserve it- as in this case.
Let us try to accept that Indian men’s hockey team won because of coach Joaquim Carvahlo and the dedication of those players who played their heart out. It was no ordinary feat to beat a team as strong as South Korea with such a margin. Please don’t forget that the Indian team had been training for the past six months for this tournament and they won due to that reason rather than a film that was released one month back. Let us learn to salute our real heroes and not the reel heroes for what they have not done.
Please, let us not belittle our hockey team and its coach for bringing laurels to our country and learn to give credit where it is due. If we really want sports, other than cricket, to come up in this country in a big way then we should also know how to appreciate and nurture real talent than coming up with some lopsided ideas to transfer the credit of winning to undeserving shoulders.
Signing off for now,
Raveesh !!
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