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Field Hockey
Field hockey is played most commonly in sand or water-based artificial turfs but can be played in gravel and grass too. Two teams of 11 players try to get the ball inside the opposing team's goal using a hockey stick. Each team has a designated goalkeeper whose job is to keep the ball from entering the goal. Field hockey started in England in the early 19 th century but a similar game existed in Egypt as early as 4,000 years ago. The first hockey club was formed in 1849 at Blackheath , London and the first Hockey Association was founded in 1886. It became an Olympic sport in 1908 but was dropped in 1924. Because of this the Federation Internationale de Hockey Sur Gazon (FIH) formed with 7 European countries as its members. Hockey was then put back on the Olympics in 1928.It became popular in India after British soldiers brought the game to the country in 1885. India soon excelled in field hockey winning during Olympics, dominating the sports along with Pakistan . This ended when the artificial turf was introduced in 1970 since the 2 countries were too poor to use artificial turfs on a wide-scale. Australia , Germany and the Netherlands stepped up and came to dominate the game up to present. |
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