Millions of hearts were broken and a shocked silence reverberated across the country after the historic upset by Pakistan in the Champions Trophy final in London. The same emotion was echoed by front pages of almost all the newspapers in India the next day, highlighting India’s crushing defeat.
However, The Times Of India opted for a different headline and chose to not stress on India’s loss. While many of you might not know, India came out on tops on the other side of London — in field hockey.
If u read India’s largest paper @timesofindia today wdn’t know #Pak thrashed #India HamidMirPAK @Ram_Guha @NasimZehra pic.twitter.com/e5Z8cipaWO
— Jyoti Malhotra (@jomalhotra) June 19, 2017
India ran out 7-1 winners over their old rivals in a World Hockey League at Lee Valley in east London just as Virat Kohli’s cricketers were enduring defeat at the Oval in the south of the city, 10 miles away.
Now this was a move both lauded and trashed by social media users.
Some readers were not impressed and mocked the newspaper for hiding facts. Users also pointed media’s hypocrisy on hockey coverage which gets little attention on other days, let alone the first page:
this is just to console… like our netas and mantris all wished Indian hockey team but no word on cricket defeat!
— Amit Bhandari (@bahraichse) June 19, 2017
What -ism is this one : Not telling the fact, hiding the information or news or event?
— United We Stand (@iSDBR) June 19, 2017
When we lose in cricket to Pak, media hides behind hockey wins. Else, hockey gets little attention.
— Nityananda Puri (@Swami_843) June 19, 2017
It appears to be Times of Ignorance 😂😂😂
— Nadeem Ahmad (@nadeemahmadzn) June 19, 2017
Did you mean Pakistan thrashed India ‘in cricket’ or that was a deliberate omission?
— Mankey (@Jille_Ilahi) June 19, 2017
Meanwhile, there were others who appreciated the newspaper’s stand
You seemed disappointed. Looks like U wanted to read a splash of how India lost. TOI is showing a positive news of where we won. Whats wrong
— Raj Neravati (@rajneravati) June 19, 2017
Y not hockey shuld b in the front pages. The hockey team are real heroes come from underprivileged families. Worked very hard
— chaitanya naidu (@chemc1990) June 19, 2017
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