Bank rewards Indian hockey team

The hockey winning celebrations were more subdued

A leading state-owned bank in India has announced that it will pay half a million rupees ($12,500) to each member of India's world beating hockey team.

The payments follows complaints by members of the team that their retention of hockey's Asia Cup has been ignored by many in the country.

The team's coach complained that in contrast, India's Twenty20 cricket winners received large cash payments.

Correspondents say the payment is the largest made to the hockey players.

Cash rewards

"It is a small token of our appreciation for the team," the General Manager for the State Bank of India, Surinder Kumar, told the BBC.

The national hockey coach, Joaquim Carvalho, earlier threatened that some of his players would even go on a hunger strike in protest over their lack of recognition after beating South Korea 7-2 on 9 September.

He complained that their achievement had been ignored by politicians, who had fallen over one another to give cash rewards to the triumphant Twenty20 cricketers.

Hockey fans say their win was the more admirable achievement

"I am very happy for the players," Mr Carvalho said after the bank announced its award.

"But it's not just cash awards that the players are after, they would also be looking for the letters of appreciation from the prime minister and other leaders, like they used to receive on earlier occasions."

The BBC's Jyotsna Singh in Delhi says that money has been trickling in for the hockey players ever since they made their resentment public.

The civil aviation minister has already announced cash awards for those hockey players on the payroll of state-run Indian airlines and Air India.

Correspondents say the Asia Cup triumph success did not trigger anything like the wild celebrations lavished on the returning Twenty20 cricketers.

The President of the Indian Hockey Federation, KPS Gill, told the BBC earlier this week: "As far as the government and politicians are concerned they only know one sport - cricket.

"It's a pity. But cricket gives the giver a lot of publicity. That's why all these politicians are doling out cash awards to the cricket players."

There was saturation media coverage of the cricket win, but only sparse coverage of the hockey triumph, even though hockey is India's national sport.