Pakistan came up in field hockey to rival India with similar style of play. In 1960, they won Olympic gold to prove their equality and dethroned India, the so-far unbeaten champions.
On grass, the hockey skills of the two teams were awesome, and a cut above the rest. Teams from outside the region were hard pressed to compete. Technology however, killed the sub-continental magic.
Astroturf, created in USA, was introduced in 1965. The first generation of “plastic pitches” displayed problems. They was viewed with distaste for aesthetic reasons and costs, but more so because of the scale of injuries it could cause.
According to the history of the synthetic surface:
This has increased the speed of the game considerably, and changed the shape of hockey sticks to allow for different techniques, such as reverse stick trapping and hitting. Due to the cost of installing synthetic pitches, India and Pakistan have lost their once dominant position in international competition.
New research addressed the issues and the artificial grass gradually gained acceptance into competitive sports in the Western countries. Through the 1970s and ’80s, Astroturf became the surface of play in matches, tennis, soccer and field hockey.
Today, the artificial replaces the natural as a common denominator in all international fixtures of field hockey. Obviously this new reality was unimagined in the sub-continent nations. Perhaps hoping the fad would soon fade, subcontinental hockey has been slow to adapt to modernity.
Western teams, outfoxed for decades by stick magic, perceived the perfect counter to the Indian play patterns in field hockey – synthetic surface to evolve the game in a new direction. The new surface rendered the traditional play obsolete.
Indian hockey was dealt a deathblow. Teams could win their matches only if they were played within the country or in places that still had natural grass. Now, most of the tournaments were held in the West.
New chapters in India’s hockey history began to chronicle the losing streaks in foreign tours, and in international meets. These brought heartbreak to lovers of the game and to the general population alike.
Sports bodies in India in those times were regularly cash-strapped. The Government, burdened with more pressing problems of poverty and economic advancement, was not open handed in providing finances. In end result, age-old traditions continued with little development.
Unlike today, the corporate world also had little interest in sponsoring sports and sports icons. Players received no monetary returns for their efforts to bring hockey glory to the country, then or thereafter. Driven solely by their passion for the art, they earned laurels representing the nation.
But in later life, they were simply forgotten; many forced to sell their gold medals to make ends meet. Many lived and died in abject poverty with no other skills, no jobs, no pensions and no recognition.
It became clear to parents that job skills were particularly important, as there was indeed no future in sports. Indian field hockey’s fall from grace was especially etched in memory. With the Western styles of play in ascendancy, the majority of the people of the country transferred affections elsewhere.
In 1983, India won the Cricket World Cup completely against the odds. The public found new heroes to idolize. From then on, field hockey, and every other game played in India, has been totally eclipsed by cricket fever.
A new era has been ushered in. Corporate advertising interests funnels big money into the sport. Franchisee club cricket, the IPL is now in its third season, making huge profits. Corporate endorsements make cricket stars millionaires, while BCCI, the Cricket Board of India, is now the richest in the world.
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