Indian National Game

Hockey is the Indian National Game. There was a golden period for Indian hockey and that was from 1928-1956. At that period, India ruled the game and the Indian hockey team won six successive Olympic gold medals. The team also won the 1975 World Cup besides two more medals (silver and a bronze). The Indian Hockey Federation gained global affiliation in 1927 and joined the International Hockey Federation (FIH).

The history of Indian Hockey Federation starts as India entered the Olympics to begin its golden saga. The tour was a huge success with India winning 18 out of the 21 matches and the legendary Dhyan Chand was the cynosure of all the eyes scoring over 100 goals of the 192 Indian accounted for. The match began in Amsterdam in 1928 and India went on a winning spree in Los Angeles in 1932 and Berlin in 1936 and thus bagged a hat-trick of gold medals at the Olympics.After the Indian Independence, the Indian team achieved another hat-trick of gold medals at the 1948 London Olympics, 1952 Helsinki Games and the Melbourne Olympics.During the Golden Era, India played 24 Olympic matches, won all 24, scored 178 goals (at an average of 7.43 goals per match) and conceded only 7 goals. The two other gold medals for India came in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

How It Is Played ?












Hockey game is played on the natural grass, gravel, sand based and water based artificial turfs. It is played with the very small hard ball. This type of game was included in the modern Olympic games in 1908. It is the game of 11 players between two teams which is completely against with each other and using their 'hooked' sticks to hit, pass, push and dribble a small, hard, usually white, ball, with one aim in mind-to score the more points by getting their ball into a opponent's goal.It is played between the two halves of 35 minutes each with a half time of 10 minutes and if you try to score a goal, then you keep the ball away from the other team.

Hockey is a highly popular outdoor sport of India. Hockey has gained the status of the national sport of India owing to its immense popularity in India. Though there are different types of hockey, field hockey is extremely popular in India. India stands unbeaten when it comes to field hockey. India has churned many outstanding hockey players. It has bagged many trophies and awards in the international hockey matches.