Hockey players win hearts with 'crystal gesture'

Indian hockey players won hearts Tuesday when they presented crystal mementoes to the cricket and football teams as well as to President Pratibha Patil at a reception at the Rashtrapati Bhavan here.

Often viewed as cricketers' poor cousins, hockey coach Joachim Carvalho and the players sought to dismiss all that when they presented the crystal sticks and ball fixed on a black base, with the names of the entire team that won the Asia Cup title in Chennai last month.

Patil had invited the Asia Cup winners - along with the cricket team that won the Twenty20 World Championship and the football team that clinched the Nehru Cup - for a reception Tuesday afternoon.

The cricketers may have been the most sought after inside and outside the Durbar Hall - the venue of the reception -- but it was the hockey team, led by a down-to-earth Prabodh Tirkey, which won the day.

"It was my initiative, along with that of the players, to have the crystal mementoes made and presented today," Carvalho told IANS.

"We would have got another one made for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whom the team will call on Wednesday, had we been sure of the meeting. We will present him a hockey stick bearing the signatures of the entire team," disclosed the former India player.

Pointing to the meticulously inscribed names of the players and the support staff of the team that won the Asia Cup, Carvalho said: "We got one each made for President Patil, Sharad Pawar (cricket board president), K.P.S. Gill (hockey federation chief) and for Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi (football president)."

The Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) had no contribution in the making of the mementoes, confirmed an IHF official.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India also presented a souvenir to Patil, but not to others.

Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni presented a cricket bat bearing the signatures of all the players who were part of the Twenty20 World Championship-winning team in South Africa last month.

BCCI chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty then presented a photo album to Patil.

"The album contained photographs of the Twenty20 World Championship, and not any silverware etc," Shetty told IANS.

The Bhaichung Bhutia-led football team, which lifted the Nehru Cup in New Delhi Aug 29, was however missing. It is in Goa for a 2010 World Cup qualifying match against Lebanon.

Indo-Asian News Service