Ice Hockey in India was introduced by the British, when they colonized the country. The sport was first played in Shimla, almost a century ago. But then the popularity of the sport died down. It was only in 1975 that the sport was revived again by the Ladakh Scouts of the Indian Army. After that, the game became popular in modern India, only at those places, which experienced snowfall. The sport is played majorly in Shimla, Uttrakhand, Ladakh and a few other places which are at high altitude.
Ice Hockey was registered as a national sport way back in 2002 and at that time there were only 300 players, playing the sport, but over the years and steadily, that number has increased to 2,000 at present.
Although, it has been some time since the sport has been around in India, unfortunately, there are not many modern ice-hockey rinks in India. There is only one functional Ice hockey rink in the country, which is in Gurgaon, but that it is one-third the size of any international ice-hockey rink. A few years ago the Uttrakhand government did construct an international rink in Dehradun; unfortunately it is not functional since 2012.
Although, it is a recognized sport in India, the game faces a lot of difficulties when it comes to promoting it. It is a known fact that the sports ministry only approves those teams which qualify for the winter Olympics, but how do they expect the Ice Hockey team to qualify for the Winter Olympics, if they don’t even have one proper ice-hockey rink to practice in. Perhaps the most depressing aspect of all this is the fact that the team is lacking funds all the time. The players have to buy their own equipment most of the times. The only time the Indian Ice Hockey Association gets some kind of support from the sports ministry is when they have to conduct national games. That also they get only a lakh of rupees to conduct these national games.
Recently the Indian Ice-Hockey team was in the news. The Indian Ice-Hockey team was in a dire condition, as it did not have enough funds to send even one man from the team to an Ice-Hockey tournament in Kuwait. They were literally begging for funds. A nation which worships its cricket stars; this was nothing more than a huge embarrassment and shame, that a national team had no funds to even compete in a low-rung tournament. When the situation seemed to go out of hand that is when the team started an online movement called #supporticehockey. The Indian Ice Hockey team was forced to turn to crowd funding.
The team was going through major financial crises, but a generous donation from Indian Cricketer, Gautam Gambhir, and 285 other donors across 50 cities have managed to generate enough funds for the team to participate in the Ice-Hockey tournament in Kuwait.
Perhaps the Indian sports ministry should hang its head in shame; even the international sports community has done more for the sport than the ministry. The International Ice Hockey Federation has sent international coaches to train the local coaches here. Even the Canadian Embassy donates sports equipment to Ice Hockey clubs in Ladakh.
It is high time that the sports ministry starts taking responsibility for something other than cricket.
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