National Sport of India:
Hockey
Hockey, in which India has an impressive record with eight Olympic gold medals, is officially the national sport.
The Golden Era of hockey in India was the period from 1928 - 1956 when India won 6 consecutive gold medals in the Olympics. During the Golden Era, India played 24 Olympic matches, won all 24, scored 178 goals (at an average of 7.43 goals per match) and conceded only 7 goals. The two other gold medals for India came in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Hockey game is played on the natural grass, gravel, sand based and water based artificial turfs. It is played with the very small hard ball. This type of game was included in the modern Olympic games in 1908. It is the game of 11 players between two teams which is completely against with each other and using their `hooked` sticks to hit, pass, push and dribble a small, hard, usually white, ball, with one aim in mind-to score the more points by getting their ball into a opponent`s goal.
In this game, all players uses the hockey sticks to play the ball where as in the football they used their feet to play the ball and the rules of hockey are similar to the rules of football. Hockey game is played by both men and women. The pitch also has an electronic scoreboard and permanent spectator seating for 350 peoples.
It is played between the two halves of 35 minutes each with a half time of 10 minutes and if you try to score a goal, then you keep the ball away from the other team. It is played outdoors on a grass and synthetic field. Hockey became an olympic sport in the 1908. It is the game of eleven players each on two teams.
It is the game of eleven players each on two teams. In this game you can use only the flat face of stick.