What an achievement for Indian sports – the Indian Men’s Hockey Team runs circles around the strong South Korean defense, retains the Asia Cup title and gains a direct entry to the World Cup 2010 – all in one blow of 70 minutes. In the run-up to the final of the Asia Cup, India scored half a century of goals and lost only 3 goals (what a feat!). In general, the Indian juggernaut made mincemeat of its opponents.

The accomplishment is made more notable by the fact that the team suffers from a lack of financial support and of good playing facilities from the Indian Hockey Federation and the government of India. To add to this, hockey is not as popular a sport as cricket is and does not receive due media (print, electronic and others) and public attention. This means, that the players have gone this far solely by dint of their hard work, love for the game and most of all the desire to see their country win.

Folks, it’s high time we give hockey and other sports due recognition, funds, media coverage and advertising. We ought to be proud of the team – they are doing a lot to hold the Indian tricolor high in the arena of international sports.

Let’s all stand up and cheer the team, after all they have really done us proud!

Asia Cup Hockey Men’s Final details:

India vs. South Korea, match held on September 9, 2007 at Chennai.

Indiawon 7-2.

Man of the match – Prabhjot Singh