The hockey finals between India and Pakistan for the Asian Championship one day after the thrilling 2-2 semi final draw was not telecast by either country even though they have pretended for over half a century that it is their national game. India won 4-2 in the end at the shootout while a large part the country and its eleven flannelled fools looked up at the English sky and hoped to win the cricket game through rain.

The internet and the blogs were full of irate fans who just could not stop asking where they could see hockey streaming live or hear it on an audio or anything at all. This speaks volumes for the love that exists for the game and the way the authorities are choking hockey. Some people offered a few sites but nothing worked and the only access was a slow text through one site that was about five minutes behind. And totally colourless and lacking detail. There were people trying to log into Chinese sites without luck.

It is a disgrace. It is a shame. It is absolutely an indictment of a two-nation bureaucracy that has no imagination beyond cricket and no desire to please the fans.

It is also a cruel indication that millions go into sponsorship of third rate performances in cricket (watch India in England) but not one corporation is willing to give hockey a break. Not a single sponsorship package of encouragement. How do these two nations even think they can compete in the big league and return to their earlier glory when they are so unloved?

Over 7,000 people were ‘listening’ to the slow texting and were grateful for it. What a sad state! One wrote: “Good work by both teams. They deserved to be the finalists. I feel good about India winning this but great work by Pakistan too. Congrats India and Pakistan for splendid show of Hockey. These officials in India who will now pretend they did everything to get the team into the finals should be banned. I am sure the same is applicable in Pakistan.”

Another requested they be dispatched to Tihar because they are criminals. Expletives rained down the Net and it is unbelievable that those song and dance shows can air for 3,000 hours a day but we cannot watch our own country play a hockey final.

Another angry viewer wrote: “If India wins all those news channels in 100 languages will show it as breaking news as if they were responsible for the victory but not one stepped forward to even give a radio commentary. And the Minister of Sport will behave as if he saved the penalty shots himself rather than Sreejes. These unknown heroes will stay unknown and nobody will care even as England whitewashes us in cricket.”