Pakistan Vs India Hockey Match and Sports Spirit

                     

         

Champion trophy hockey tournament 2014 for men was held in Bhubaneswar; India, that lasted from 6^th-14 December. Total eight teams participated in the event. Firstly pool matches were played. Then in 2^nd round quarterfinal, semifinals and final were played. The final of tournament was played between Germany and Pakistan. Germany won by 2-0. It was tenth victory of proud German team.

Champion trophy is just over but the noise is left behind. This time clatter is not because of who win or who lose but the debate is semifinal. That was played between India and Pakistan. As we know that these two neighboring nations are rivals. So any sports events played among these countries are taken as a matter of do or die by their people.

In hockey semifinal Pakistan got a victory over India by 4-3 goals. The event was hosted by India and the match was played in Kalinga Stadium nearly all crowd was supporting India. As the match come to end Pakistani players removed their shirts to celebrate their victory. This was taken very seriously by Indian media and people. Indian team captain Sardar Singh and their head coach Roelant Oltmans commented as:

Sardar said, "They should not have celebrated in such a way. There were families inside the stadium and they shouldn't have taken off their shirts. Even after winning the match against Pakistan in the Asian Games, we didn't celebrate in this fashion." 

"I didn't see too much of the Pakistan players but it was a bit too much," said Oltmans. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

We have seen so many players in different sports events removing shirts to celebrate so we cannot say that was too much. But it’s also a reality that few Pakistani players were seen showing rude gestures to the crowd. Though abuse from the crowd continued throughout the game but the players should show sportsman spirit. They should have potential to stand in the stressed conditions.

After match Wiert Doyer tournament director, came with a statement that after investigating the situation he don’t feel it necessary to take action against any player. Moreover, he said he have spoken to Mr.Shahnaz (head coach of Pakistani team) and told him that the behavior of Pakistani team was somewhat beyond acceptance of FIH. For that Mr.Shahnaz apologized and said this type of behavior will not be seen again. But he refused to apology from india as he said players did that as a reaction. All that happened was basically because of the heat of moment. On the other side harsh statements continued from Indian side and later Mr. Shahnaz apologized to Indian team on behalf of his team. To satisfied the sick, rival host Pakistan hockey federation banned two players for two matches so they were not been able to play the final and one was warned. 

After all this drama Pakistan team lose final and winner’s title goes to Germany. Hockey is National game of Pakistan but unfortunately because of lack of facilities and financial support from the government, Pakistan is lacking behind. On the other hand India is spending a lot of money on different league matches to improve and bring forward new talent on gross root level but still no fruitful results are attained. 

If both these countries remain engaged in their fighting, they will surely not being able to rise which they deserve.