Aspasian - One for All and All for One

Hockey - The National game of India, has a long history. 4000 year old drawings found in the Nile Valley, Egypt depicted men playing the sport. Hockey has also been played in different countries with their native names. In India the game was called as chueca, hurling in Ireland, Beikou in China, araucano in South America and dumbung in Western Australia. The word hockey is believed to be derived from the French word hocquet.

Modern Hockey was being played in Britain in the early nineteenth century. The international board for hockey was founded in 1895. The game was included in the 1908 Olympic Games in London for the first time. From 1928 Olympic game it became a permanent fixture in Olympics. As of the 2008 Olympics, India has won the most Olympic gold medals (8) in men's hockey in 1928, 1932, 1936, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1964 and 1980. It shows India’s dominance in this game. But India failed to even qualify for the event in 2008 Olympics held in China,. This made the hockey followers in India very sad and the Indian Hockey Federation has been completely sacked. New members are appointed to the Federation. Fans believe that they will renovate our Indian team to the extent such that they will win the gold medal in the next Olympics in London and also win the hockey world cup. The number of hockey followers in India is pretty less compared cricket followers and due to the failure to qualify to the Olympics the number of followers has further decreased. Our hockey team should win more matches to make Indians proud. Let us wish the best for the Indian hockey team in the forthcoming events.