Report and Pic by Mounesh Vishwakarma
Daijiworld Media Network – Puttur (RD/SP)
 
Puttur, Jun 5: Hockey players playing for the nation also deserve full government support on par with the cricketers, said international Indian hockey player Sunil S V.
 
Sunil S V is one of the key players, who contributed to the success of the India hockey team in the recently held Azlan Shah Hockey tournament in Malaysia.  He is a resident of Madikeri and had come here to attend the wedding ceremony of his relative that was held at Vishwakarma Auditorium, Bolwar, near here on Thursday June 4.
 
Addressing the media persons at the Auditorium here, Sunil S V said, even though he got the sad news of his father’s death during the ongoing tournament in Malaysia, he had overcome his emotions and played to the best of his skills and ability and thereby contributed for India’s victory in the Azlan Hockey Cup.
 
Meanwhile, Sunil expressed his displeasure over the step-motherly treatment being meted out by the government towards hockey.  The government announced a reward of two lac rupees to every member of the Indian hockey team which won the Asia Cup in 2007, while it has not yet acknowledged the recent victory of the national team in the Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament.
 
Furthermore, Sunil said that government has been encouraging cricket and Indian cricketers get rewards besides wide publicity in the media. At the same time, the national hockey players are being sidelined by the government and that is the sad part of it, he rued.
 
Sridhar Acharya, who accompanied Indian hockey player Sunil, observed that had a national cricketer arrived here, a large number of people would have gathered.  However, there were a very few people when a national hockey player of repute arrived here, which exhibits apathy of the Indians towards their own sport, hockey, he lamented.