India and Sports.

Today is a historic day for Indian sports. After 40 years of wait, India has finally won an Olympic medal in Hockey. Hockey is the national sport of India. Some people will say Cricket because of its immense popularity, but it is Hockey officially. This is what makes it even more special, it has been a long wait, but finally, we have taken our place on the podium. We all hope that the team will do even better in Paris 2024 and win the gold medal.

Tomorrow is also going to be a big day for Indian Hockey as our women’s team will play for the bronze medal, and we hope they can achieve what the men’s team did today. This is the first time that the Indian women’s team has reached the semifinals at the Olympics. This in itself is a big achievement. The nation is proud of its daughters and for their brave journey throughout this tournament. They played like warriors and in the quarterfinals, they defeated the No. 1 ranked team which was nothing short of a miracle. This fairytale run came to an end in the semifinals where they lost to the No. 2 ranked team. There is no shame in losing to a better team. In this weak moment when the whole nation was feeling for the team’s loss, a few men were hurling casteist abuses in front of Vandana Katariya’s house in Haridwar. They believed that there were too many Dalit community players in the team, and that’s the reason why the team lost the semifinal. Seriously, what the fuck? Even in this day and age, some people have decided that they want to live in times that were prevalent centuries back.

This is not the first time this is happening in India, and this won’t be the last. A decade ago when the Indian cricket team was not the world-beater that it is today, they also suffered the same fate from the riling public every now and then. People gathering outside the player’s house with banners, shouting slogans, burning effigies, mainstream media digging into their personal lives, and dragging them through the mud.

Criticism is easy, anybody can do it, but before criticizing one should introspect whether they have the knowledge about the thing or sport they are criticizing. Any sportsman who plays at the international level has sacrificed a large part of his life to make it to that position. He has beaten his fellow compatriots and made it that far. He is there because he is the best at what he does. So, any person who is criticizing him should at least have some understanding of what it takes to be a sportsman. I know some would say then how can you criticize the government or a political party. Well, a government or political party can affect my state of life or bring radical changes in the way I live; sports or athletes don’t have that power over me.

This post is slowly becoming an emotional outburst, but I don’t want to preach or tell anyone to have sympathy for athletes, all I am saying is just be a bit constructive in your criticism. I don’t need to go into the details of how we lack in sports infrastructure and how much the Indian athletes go through to reach the top in world sports, there are already many articles and documentaries highlighting those shortfalls. Let us all support wholeheartedly the people who represent the nation and make the nation proud by their accomplishments. Having empathy for others isn’t that difficult.