India’s Ice Hockey team seeks help via Social Media for Funds
The condition of sports (other than Cricket) hit an all time low recently, when the country’s ice hockey team asked for help on Twitter in order to gather funds to travel to Kuwait for the International Ice hockey Federation Cup of Asia Division 1. The tournament kicks off from the 18th of April, 2015 and ends on the 24th of April. Apparently, the team needed 2 million rupees to be a part of this big tournament. Things took an ugly turn when the team had no sponsors and the government took no initiative to back it up. India is all about Cricket, only. Not only does it grab all the sponsorships but also rakes in cricketers for million dollars deals to feature for a split second in various ads to promote brands. While Indian Cricket Team’s captain owns the fastest bike in the world, other sports are literally left at the mercy of God. Desperate and shocked with everyone’s attitude towards ice hockey, the team decided to take the charge of the situation and started a twitter campaign with the hashtag #SupportIceHockey. The movement saw more than half the amount raised, within a week. The players want to create awareness about this sport and rake in more participants, but nobody seems to care. The players don’t have enough money and have to make ends meet on their own. Under such circumstances, it is quite surprising that they haven’t lost hope and still wish to play for the country. With more and more stories reported of sport heroes from other fields being absolutely neglected, it’s high time that India gives a hard look at its attitude and brings about a change in the system. One must not forget that when it comes to the Olympics, it’s not Cricket that is going to fetch us medals.
Sometimes we aren’t able to comprehend what is it that the government or Indians feel proud of? Here is a team that is willing to bring glory to India; the next thing we know it doesn’t have the money! Some actor promotes a sport for a few months and it trends; later, it is lost behind the huge shadow of cricket. We have no right to complain about the state of sports in our country if we cannot collectively make a difference.
You can read the full article at Reuters.com
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