IOA showed Gill the door: is it not too late for national sports?

We had our hey days. There was a virtual gold rush for the nationalsports between 1928 to 1956. We finished at the podium for 11th time. Wehad an absolute dominance in international scene by winning six Olympicgold medals in a row, till an ignominious exit of Indian Hockey team fromOlympics. We have also won the 1975 World Cup and won the Asian Gamesgold in 1966 and 1998. But in contrary compare the performances of Indianteam you can't help hanging your head in shame. Whether one is a hockey fan or not, but it is really heartening torealize that first time in last 80 years, there will be no Indian Hockeyteam in Olympics. The game which used to conjure up nationalconsciousness is not even flicker in our national memory these days.Thanks to the sorry state of affair, the game which we call our nationalgame has reduced to a distant cousin of cricket. It is shameful that in last few years the especially in the last sixWorld Cups (since 1986), India have finished 12, 10, 5, 9, 10 and 11. Notto mention that the team failed to qualify for Olympics. And moreshameful is that, it is the performance of our hockey team under theaegis of one of our national hero, KPS Gill. He was the one who showedthe door to some big names of the game claiming that he is in a processof sanitizing the game and sculpting a golden future for the game. Weforgot and forgiven reposing enough faith on a man of credibility whichhe has shown in his service life. But was the top cop fit to be at thehelm? If we go by the records, the rut may have set in earlier but, theignominy has been witnessed mostly during the regime of KPS Gill. Andwhat was more killing is that, Gill brazenly refuses to step down. Andadding insult to the raw wound he even points fingers at some of themedia houses for making scapegoat out of him, after he was goaded for anexplanation. Moreover, we both the thinking and unthinking Indians are much to beblamed for the nadir the national sports has reached. Many of our hockeyheroes had warned of such a gloomy future for the game decades back. Somegood souls even tried to divert our collective gaze and craze fromcricket by making a beautiful movie 'Chak De'. Thanks to the movie, wesang the title song in chorus making it our theme song at every nationalachievement. But woefully thick-skinned Indian allowed the song behijacked by games other than hockey. More than a month ago we witnessed our national shame as we failed toqualify for the Olympics. The team coach, Joaquim Carvalho put in hispapers even before many of the Indians even heard the news of the matchat Santiago. But the Hockey Federation chief brazenly held his post, evensent out a signal that he is just untouchable, whatever might be thefate of Indian Hockey. About two months have elapsed since then, KPS Gillhas been hopping from News studio to news studios, claiming that he is noway responsible for the rut that has set in, rather the game was fated tosee this end. With the IHF President insouciance and turning thefederation into a fiefdom, the sports lovers just watched in helplessnesstill the sting exposed the evil nexus in our national sports. Even theformer sports minister refused to intervene and burn his fingers. Inutter helplessness everybody looked up to rescue the game which they haveloved and cheered lustily. And today the Indian Olympic Associationstepped in to disband the Indian Hockey Federation and sack its premier.Is it not too late? Why did we allow the national game to remain ahostage to the autocratic whims of a few people?