The national ice hockey team of India practicing for the tournament (Courtesy: @bhaiyyajispeaks/Twitter)

Yes, India has a national ice hockey team. For many of us, that is a surprise given our Indian milieu’s unflinching and loyal support to one sport. Yes, cricket has dominated a million hearts in our country and continues to do so. But the downside is that non-cricket sports have suffered. We often come across news of our hockey team (which is incidentally our national sport) severely cash-strapped and failing to compete in key tournaments due to lack of funds. I am afraid, a similar situation has arisen.

Our national ice hockey team, which has been playing for the last 6 years, has taken to the internet and social media to raise money so that their players could compete in the International Ice Hockey Federation Challenge Cup of Asia starting from April 18 in Kuwait. In fact, their campaign on social media attracted so much steam that #SupportIceHockey was even trending at the top of Twitter a few days ago.

Please support our Ice Hockey team travelling to Kuwait. We need to raise funds for the team. A 20k donation will cover costs for 1 player.

— Ice Hockey India (@icehockeyindia) March 5, 2015

It is so tough to push sports like Ice Hockey when cricket takes up all sponsor budgets. We have a national team and are begging for money.

— Ice Hockey India (@icehockeyindia) March 5, 2015

According to the team, a donation of Rs 20,000 will cover the costs for a single player. The crowdfunding platform where people can make their donations shows that as of 3:45 pm today, a total of 121 donations have been made and Rs 1,55,452 raised. The team’s target is Rs 3,50,000.

Thanks to India’s tropical temperatures, ice hockey might not be popular, but in cold Himalayan regions of Ladakh and Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, it is one of the main winter sports.

We demand our share of love, because be it Cricket or Ice Hockey,The association of tricolor shall be respected everywhere #SupportIceHockey

— Ice Hockey India (@icehockeyindia) April 3, 2015

We might have been unsuccessful in our bid to retain the cricket world cup, but supporting this team might help us install our tricolour in Kuwait.