Hockey's profile in India could reach new heights after both the men's and women's teams ended decades in the doldrums by advancing into the semi-finals of the Tokyo Olympics.
Indian men once ruled the Olympic hockey tournament, winning six successive golds from 1928 to 1956. When they claimed the top prize for an eighth time at the 1980 Moscow Games, no one could have guessed that they would have been left in Olympic wilderness for the next four decades.
With the country on the verge of ending the long drought, men's captain Manpreet Singh, 29, said: "I wasn't even born when India were reaching the semi-finals.Since 1980, India's men's team have not placed higher than fifth at an Olympics and reached their nadir when they failed to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Games.
While hockey still enjoys a considerable fan base in India, its popularity has faded since the country has produced world-beating teams in other sports, especially cricket. "Yesterday the men's hockey team, today the women's hockey team... Absolutely loving it," cricket great Sachin Tendulkar"Well done to the women's team for making it to the #Olympics semi-finals for the first time ever! The whole nation is behind you!"
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