Hockey and India - Field Hockey in India

Origin Of Hockey

Hockey is believed to be one of most oldest sport that came into existence about 1200 years before the ancient Games of Olympia. Starting from Arab, Greek, Romans to Ethiopian everyone used to play a variation of game. People used to play it just for fun while other had an opinion that hockey would make them better warrior. The term "hockey" is believed to french origin. It probably comes from the French hocquet, meaning a shepherds crook. The standard rules for modern hockey or field hockey, to differentiate it from ice hockey were laid in 1886 by London Hockey Association. British army introduced hockey to India and soon it became one of major sport of the country before becoming the national game of India.

History Of Indian Hockey

The first major tournament of hockey in India was The Beighton Cup organized in Kolkata in the year 1895 followed by Aga Khan Cup in the year 1896, since then India has played many major and prestigious international tournament like Olympic Games, World Cup, Hockey Champions Challenge, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, Afro-Asian Games, etc. Recently in 2010 India organized Hockey World Cup in Delhi.

Indian won there first Olympic gold in year 1928 and remain undisputed champion till 1956. In total, the Indian hockey team has won eight Olympics gold medals - the highest among all national teams with six gold medals in a row while winning 24 consecutive matches between 1924 and 1956, a record likely to be broken in future. India has also won one gold in World Cup, two gold in Asian Games and two gold in Asia Cup.

Some of player who dominate the world of hockey for India are Dhyan Chand, Roop Singh, Balbir Singh etc. Talk about Indian Hockey is incomplete without Dhyan Chand. Dhyan Chand Singh a legendary player won three Olympic gold medal and was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India third highest civilian honor, in 1956. He was the elder brother of fellow player Roop Singh. Adolf Hitler was very much impressed by his performance. Hitler purportedly offered to make Dhyan Chand a Field Marshal in the German army. But Chand refused to join. Like Dhyan Chand many other players brought glory to Indian Hockey.

Currently Indian Hockey team is not at it best, it rank 9 among 20 team, till march 15, 2010. But a day will come when Indian Hockey will again rise to the top as we all know history repeat itself. Indian team will flight till the end to achieve what rightly belong to them, that is honor and respect.