First it was the men, then it was the women: India’s performance at hockey this Olympics was nothing short of breath-taking. With both the men’s and women’s teams entering the semifinals, the former for the first time since 1972, the latter for their first time ever, hockey entered the Indian imagination in a way it had not done since Chak De India’s release in 2007.
With their victory against Germany, the men’s team won a historic bronze medal on Thursday. While the women’s team missed out on a medal after their loss against Great Britain, the excitement over Team India’s performance could not be greater. This has resulted, for a while at least, in Google searches for hockey outperforming those for cricket, according to Google Trends.
According to Google Trends, searches for hockey started to outperform those for cricket from August 1, with spikes in the following days. In the long-term view of these trends, this is the first time hockey has registered more searches than cricket since 2004 (when Google Trends data begins).
In a cricket-crazy country like India, where “Indian Premier League” outperformed “coronavirus” in pandemic-hit 2020, hockey taking the mantle from cricket is a sign of renewed interest in the sport.
A similar feat took place after the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Chak De India released in 2007, which prompted sales of hockey sticks to shoot through the roof.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also noted the renewed interest. In a tweet on Friday, he said, “The exceptional performance of the Men’s and Women’s Hockey Team has captured the imagination of our entire nation. There is a renewed interest towards Hockey that is emerging across the length and breadth of India. This is a very positive sign for the coming times.”
In 2020, the Sports Ministry replied to an RTI that sought to know whether hockey was the national game of India (a popular misconception). The sports ministry said the government has not declared any sport or game as the National Game of the country, as the objective of the government is to encourage/promote all popular sports disciplines.”
