Indian Played “Average” Hockey In World Cup: Legends read full article at worldnews365.me

Indian hockey legends on Tuesday slammed the nationwide group for its “average” efficiency within the World Cup the place they misplaced to New Zealand to crash out of the quarterfinal race, saying the debacle has halted the momentum the nation had gained after profitable a historic bronze on the Tokyo Olympics. India had gone into the showpiece with hopes of ending on the rostrum for the primary time after the gold medal-winning feat in 1975 however misplaced to New Zealand in sudden dying within the crossover match.

The hosts will play ninth to sixteenth classification matches on Thursday and Saturday in Rourkela.

Member of the 1975 gold-winning group Ashok Kumar stated the Indians lacked high quality and had been far inferior to prime nations in all departments of the sport.

“The team was given all kinds of support, 6-7 months camp, foreign exposure, top class infrastructure, the best of diets, what else could have been done? And what performance did they give? You cannot even reach the quarterfinals of a home World Cup in front of your fans,” Kumar stated.

“It has to do a lot with the quality of players, ultimately the debacle was due to average players playing average games. That can’t win you a World Cup medal,” he added.

Making additional evaluation of the efficiency, Kumar stated, “Whenever we attacked, most of the time we ended up at the opposition circle. I don’t know how the players were trained, there was no distribution of the ball, no creative passes, they simply didn’t know what to do. If you can’t score more than four goals against a team like Wales, then what are you doing? “Since, they can not rating from open play, they needed to rely on penalty corners and Harmanpreet Singh was underneath great stress and he failed. We weren’t up to speed in all departments of the sport. Aside from Akashdeep Singh, I’d say no (outfield) participant performed effectively within the 4 matches.

“The team failed miserably in defence also. They conceded two goals against Wales and then allowed New Zealand to come back twice after two-goal down. They cannot do that in a World Cup. I don’t know why Rupinder Pal Singh retired after the Olympics, he would have been a great asset in defence and PC conversion,” the 72-year-old stated. Requested if there needs to be adjustments within the teaching employees, Kumar, who scored the profitable aim within the 1975 World Cup closing in opposition to arch-rivals Pakistan, stated, “We have had many foreign coaches in the past but what is our achievement in the World Cup after 1975. So, please tell me what difference would have been there if we had Indian coaches. Indian coaches would not have done worse at least.

“Because of the assist of the federal government, particularly the Odisha authorities, we’re internet hosting World Cups right here and our group ought to have capitalised on this. However it’s like we’re internet hosting tournaments and our group isn’t getting higher. I really feel that the great momentum we gained from the Tokyo Olympics has been halted by this World Cup efficiency.”

Former captain Sardar Singh said the debacle was due to the collective failure of the team.

“Hockey is a group recreation. If you wish to win a match, 14 to fifteen gamers of the squad must carry out at 70 to 80 per cent, which was lacking on this World Cup,” said the legendary midfielder, who is part of the Hockey India selection committee.

“Hardik’s harm was a giant blow as he was the primary participant within the midfield. He was instrumental in linking up with the forwards and creating alternatives, in addition to scoring a aim (in opposition to Spain).” Sardar also agreed that Harmanpreet felt the pressure of captaincy as he missed one penalty corner after another.

“He (Harmanpreet) felt the stress of captaincy, that too in a house World Cup. He is among the finest drag-flickers on the earth and did effectively within the Check collection in opposition to Australia additionally.

“But he did not look his best, perhaps feeling the pressure. But he is a world class player and cannot be counted out.” On head coach Graham Reid asking for a psychological conditioning coach going forward, Sardar stated, “If he (Reid) felt so, he should have raised the demand after the Olympics. Hockey India and SAI have been providing all necessary help to the team and they would have addressed it too.” Hockey India president and former captain Dilip Tirkey stated not reaching the quarterfinals of the World Cup after the excessive of Tokyo Olympics lower than two years in the past was very disappointing.

“Some players from whom we had a lot of expectations, they somehow could not perform. We all have accepted it,” he stated.

“We got several penalty corners but we scored a few from them. There was something missing in our defensive structure also.”

(This story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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