The Hindu : New Delhi News : Cheering winners, sportsman style

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 30, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

Cheering winners, sportsman style

Smriti Kak Ramachandran

President hosts reception for three national teams

NEW DELHI: If she has favourites, she is not letting them show. When it comes to acknowledging and applauding sporting events, President Pratibha Patil in true sporting spirit does not believe in taking sides.

An accomplished sportswoman in her younger days, Ms. Patil wants all sports to be given the same attention and a matching felicitation for all achievements on the field.

Ms. Patil is hosting the reception for all the three national winning teams in cricket, hockey and football at Rashtrapati Bhavna here on Tuesday. In a country where cricket is considered the ‘real’ national sport, the First Citizen took the lead in congratulating the Indian men’s hockey team for winning and retaining the Asia Cup recently.

Ms. Patil, whose exploits as a table tennis player in her younger days are well known, will be hosting the teams that brought home the Twenty20 cricket world cup, the Asia Cup in hockey and the Nehru Cup in football.

Sources said Ms. Patil decided to host all the three teams together to send out a strong message that all sports are given equal consideration. She was the first person to congratulate the hockey team when they won the Asia Cup and was equally prompt in wishing Viswanathan Anand.

The President who congratulated Anand for not just being a “Grandmaster, but now the world champion for the second time,” hosted him along with his wife Aruna at her official residence.

Her messages to the victorious teams, too, have been sprinkled with sporting sentiments. While she cheered Mahender Singh Dhoni’s men for playing “positive cricket”, the hockey team led by Prabodh Tirkey was commended for having played “attacking and flowing hockey throughout the tournament”.

The achievements of individual sportspersons also did not go unnoticed. Congratulatory messages were received by the football team and N.P. Pradeep for his “magnificent performance in the final match”; by Jhulan Goswami on winning the International Cricket Council’s “Cricketer of the Year” award. Tania Sachdev received an applause for winning the Women’s Chess Championship in Tehran.

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