Breda (Holland): India defeated Argentina 2-1 to register their second consecutive victory at the Champions Trophy hockey tournament here on Sunday.
Harmanpreet Singh gave India the lead off a penalty corner in the 17th minute before Mandeep Singh (28th minute) doubled the advantage with a field goal.
Matias Paredes powered home a penalty in the 30th minute to reduce the margin for Argentina.
Meanwhile, Olympic gold medallist and former India captain Gurbux Singh feels hockey should be immediately given status of national game and the legendary Dhyan Chand conferred a much-delayed Bharat Ratna.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik stirred up a hornet’s nest after he wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to officially name hockey the national game recently.
Odisha will host this year’s hockey World Cup and in a first such deal, the state will also sponsor the national teams.
“It was a national sport but it wasn’t recognised by the Government of India. But now there is a demand and it should be,” Gurbux said on the sidelines of 25th annual Bharat Nirman awards where he was conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
“But then you’ll find lot of people will go for cricket and other games. But I think hockey is definitely the pioneer in getting honour to the country from 1928. And it should be recognised as a national game.
“I hope and pray that this is done immediately,” said Gurbux, who led India to the 1966 Asian Games gold.
Patnaik’s letter has opened a debate over whether hockey should be notified as the national game, or indigenous Indian sports like kabaddi or kho-kho given the honour.
The Indian hockey team has won eight gold medals — the last of which was at the 1980 Moscow Games — and one silver and two bronze medals at the Olympics.
