We live in a nation where cricket is termed as a gentleman’s game but other sports are not recognized at all. They say “Cricket is not just a sport but a religion”. It is no doubt that countless money is being invested to promote cricket-related stuff more than hockey or any other sport in India.
Life has not been so good for athletes who don’t play cricket. Sporting activities like Hockey, Football, Weightlifting, Boxing not getting a chance to thrive in our country. This goes to show that how cricket alone is dominating other sports in this country. Another most significant thing to notice is the annual salaries of Indian athletes.
It varies from sport to sport but the annual package of Indian cricketers shows that there is a staggering gap between cricket and other sports athletes. Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli is one of the most recognisable personalities in the world. He is also the richest cricketer in the world.
When hockey is the national sport, isn’t it that these players should be getting paid more than cricketers? How is that supposed to be crores per year for a cricketer when cricket is not even the national sport in the first place. In fact, we give utmost importance to cricket but not other sports.
Indian women’s hockey team cruise to the semifinals
Case in point, Salima Tete who is part of the women’s hockey team is from Badkichapur, Jharkhand. The village has less than 50 families and doesn’t have even a single TV. The internet is also not fast enough to stream matches.
The authorities are trying to make sure that her family can watch the semifinals. Ahead of the Indian women’s hockey team’s semi-final game in Tokyo Olympics, the family of Salima Tete, a member of the hockey team, wished her good luck.
Her father said, “We’re very happy, very proud of her. We hope that they come back with a gold medal.” The Indian women’s hockey team will play in the semi-finals in Tokyo Olympics on August 04.
In most villages in India, men are the sole breadwinners. We don’t often see many women going to offices as they are forced to sit at home and do household chores. On the other hand, men struggle hard to earn wages either daily, weekly or on a monthly basis.
Women have very limited opportunities to study and were always inferior to men. They never really had the liberty to do what men were doing and hence they became homemakers. However, in the male-dominated society, some women are braving against all odds to become successful in life.
Salima Tete deserves our praise and let’s wish her good luck in her semi-final and future endeavours. Earlier, Salima Tete’s team defeated Australia by 1-0 in a nail-biting victory. The entire Jharkhand’s Simdega district erupted in joy. They graced India women’s maiden entry to the hockey semi-finals of the Olympics. The Indian women will lock horns with Argentina in the semifinals on August 4.
Proud moment for Salima’s father
Salima’s father Sulakshan Tete, a former player and now a small-time farmer told the local media: “We are naturally excited to see our daughter in the Olympics. But we are more happy to see the team doing well after a poor start in the earlier matches. We are all praying that Team India returns with a medal,” he said.
Meanwhile, an official of Hockey Simdega added that everyone in the village was worried after power lines tripped owing to inclement weather. “We contacted the district administration for help and officials tried hard to repair the transformer. But due to the erratic weather, power wasn’t restored. However, Salima’s family, along with local residents, managed to organise a generator set to watch the match,” the official said.