Being a true football and hockey fan, this question often engages me the most. Why a nation which is by the far the best in Cricket (a team game) fails to match with the same effort in other team games like Football and Hockey. True !! Physically we are not as superior as the Europeans, but countries like china, south korea and japan have showed that Asians too are good in football.
Then, An Ayn Rand Quote comes to mind: "Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong"
I questioned myself whether cricket is really a team game as football or Hockey !! Then i realized that individual has more scope to perform here than the team and often teams are known by the individuals who represent them. The living testimony of this fact is people naming teams like Gavaskar XI or Border XI.. Offlate ! People after looking at Australians have realized that cricket has to be won by a team and not by an individual.
Now coming back to football and hockey. We, Indians, have rarely put up superlative efforts when it came to perform as a team. We look more for individual than collective glory. Psychologically, if you see, any aspirant in these two games always aspires to be a striker first. Being a defender or mid-fielder is just a chance. This is because we perceive as the one who finishes is the one who is the best (Primarily this was the reason why Hrishikesh Kanitkar was retained in the team for two years after hitting a boundary off the penultimate ball to finish the match). Hence we see Dhanraj and Baichung getting fame whereas one does not remember a certain Tirkey !!
Reflect on this: Wayne Rooney, a striker of Manchester United(my fav team) passed the ball at the right moment to Park Si Jung(his team-mate) to score the goal. He could have scored it himself but had a 50-50 chance, but gave it to Park Si Jung who finished cleanly to give United a 2-0 lead. Jung after scoring, congratulated Rooney for the pass without any delay. Professional !! Which is why good players like Terry, Ferdinand, Lampard, Gerrard, Neville are all recognized there !!
Locally, While i was playing football along with IIT boys in campus, I found that people tended to shoot even when they had 1% chance on scoring goal and for every goal scored people congratulated the striker (who obviously went into wild celebration) without bothering about the people who set his goal up for him ....
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2 comments:
nice post daa. super formla irukaa po!
yes....too much individualism is there....football and hockey cannot flourish with this attitude.
lots to learn from others. really!!!!
Dude, Lampard is one of the most prolific goal-scoring mid-fielder the world has ever seen. Thats why he is recognized. Ferdinand is the richest defender in this world. Gerrard is the most inspirational captain in world football today and Terry is best in handling the ball. Also, Rooney assisted Park with that goal (I am sure you are talking about the one at Old Trafford against Arsenal) because he was in an crossing range and he missed quite a few before. Please don't tell me that strikers in EPL or La Liga or Serie A don't take their chances to shoot as soon as they get the ball.
Coming over to hockey, Pillay is the most recognized player because it's goals which win you matches and he scores them. Tirkey would have been reconized if India had kept a clean sheet atleast for two-consecutive games which rarely happens. Ahe cannot spell Tamil Nadu properly. I agree with the Hrishikesh Kanitkar part. For that matter, why was Gagan Ajit Singh, a proven goal scorer chucked out of the Indian team. Jugraj Singh is an another example. And btw Bhutia aint that good.
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