Shameful Exit

It is a shame for India's national sport as its worst fears came true. For the first time in eighty years the Indian Hockey team failed to qualify for the prestigious Olympics. Great Britain defeated India 2-nil in the final of the Mens Olympic hockey qualifiers played at Santiago in Chile on Sunday 9th March,2008.

India had earlier lost to Britain in the league match but the Indian coach was confident of pulling off a victory in the final decider. However, that was not the case as Britain got the early advantage through Barry Middleton's goal. India lost pace in the match thereafter as a second goal from Richard Mantell helped Britain extend the lead to 2-0.

With the entire hockey fraternity baffled by this shocking exit of Team India, former players expressed their views on the same. Former Indian Olympian -- Viren Rasquinha -- described Sunday as a sad day for Indian hockey and attributed the loss to poor strategy. He said, "Yes it is actually a really sad day for Indian hockey. I watched the game today but from the looks of it the British team were far superior from us, much better in every aspect of the game and they deserved to qualify. Right from the start, there was no composure maintained, lack of strategy and lack of discipline as well. The team does not seem to be learning from their mistakes. It is not just a problem that has cropped up overnight, this has been something that has been around from the last 10 -15 years and it has just boiled down to the fact that we have failed to qualify for
the Olympics." The former player also added that it is not upon him or the common man to decide if KPS Gill should resign. He believes strongly that he is just a player and it is not on his onus to interfere in the politics of the game.

Even as India failed to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the hockey team managed a record six consecutive Gold's since the introduction of Hockey as a discipline int he Amsterdam Olympic games in the year 1928. India went onto win at Los Angeles, Berlin, London, Helsinki and Melbourne. India's Victory march was then stopped by Arch Rivals Pakistan at the 1960 Rome Olympics. But India then recovered well to win the next two editions at Tokyo and Moscow.

India's glorious past
Medals in Olympics

Year Venue Medal
1928 Amsterdamn Gold
1932 Los Angeles Gold
1936 Berlin Gold
1948 London Gold
1952 Helsinki Gold
1956 Melbourne Gold
1960 Rome Silver
1964 Tokyo Gold
1980 Moscow Gold



Gone are those days when India's hockey performance used to dominate headlines. India have won the Olympic Hockey Gold 8 times but their last success came in 1980 at the Moscow Olympics. Ever since it has been a familiar tale of dissappointment, with India failing to finish even in the top four.

But after the success of the Indian Hockey team in the 2007 Asia Cup, hopes were high again. However, after failing to qualify for the 2008 Olympics, the big question is what's the future for Indian Hockey? India however did have the chance to Qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olmypics had they finished in the top three of the 2006 Doha Asian Games. A look back at the last five editions of the Asian Games suggests that a poor performance at the Doha Games cost India dearly.

Loss at Doha costs dear
India at Asian Games


Year Venue Medal
1990 Beijing Silver
1994 Hiroshima Silver
1998 Bangkok Gold
2002 Busan Silver
2006 Doha 5th place