Today, i saw an ad on television where Virender Sehwag says that he'll be going to the stadium to watch the Hockey World Cup, which is taking place in India this year. It's so ironical.

"Dhanraj Pillai, whose career spanned from December 1989 to August 2004, played 339 international matches. The Indian Hockey Federation keeps no official statistics for the goals scored. There is no credible information on the number of international goals scored by Dhanraj. He reckons it is more than 170, but a leading hockey statistician insists it is closer to 120" says Wikipedia.

There was a short span of time when i followed Indian hockey very closely. They weren't anywhere close to the top of the game, but they were an amazing bunch of players to watch. Prabhjot Singh, Jograj Singh (penalty corner specialist who was involved in a car accident and has probably never played hockey since), Dilip Tirkey and Dhanraj Pillai made up a team which made life more exhilarating. This was a time when players were still allowed to charge out from the goal line at the time of a penalty corner. They would get hit on their bodies every second time, and would go back and charge out again, with the same vigour.

Dhanraj was as close as i'll ever get to watching a freedom fighter in a battle. He made one shout and scream at the television set. But such is the state of Indian Hockey.