Hockey World Cup 2023: 'India's debacle was due to average players playing average games' - legends
Hockey World Cup 2023: India's stint ended early as it failed to reach the tournament's quarterfinals, losing to New Zealand in the crossovers. Meanwhile, legends have slammed the side for playing average hockey.
FollowIndian hockey legends on Tuesday slammed the national team for its "average" performance in the 2023 FIH Men's Hockey World Cup, where it lost to New Zealand to crash out of the quarterfinal race, saying the debacle has halted the momentum the nation had gained after winning a historic bronze at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. India had gone into the showpiece hoping to finish on the podium for the first time after the gold medal-winning feat in 1975 but lost to New Zealand in sudden death in the crossover match. The hosts will play 9th to 16th classification matches on Thursday and Saturday in Rourkela.
Member of the 1975 gold-winning team Ashok Kumar said the Indians lacked quality and were far inferior to top nations in all departments of the game. "The team was given all kinds of support, 6-7 months camp, foreign exposure, top class infrastructure, and the best 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 said.
"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," added Kumar. Making further analysis of the performance, Kumar stated, "Whenever we attacked, most of the time we ended up at the opposition circle. I am curious to know how the players were trained. There was no distribution of the ball and no creative passes. They didn't know what to do. What are you doing if you can't score more than four goals against a team like Wales?"
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"Since they cannot score from open play, they had to depend on penalty corners, and Harmanpreet Singh was under tremendous pressure, and he failed. We could have been up to the mark in all game departments. Except for Akashdeep Singh, no [outfield] player played well in the four matches," continued Kumar.
"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 wonder why Rupinder Pal Singh retired after the Olympics. He would have been a great asset in defence and PC conversion," Kumar further assessed.
Asked if there should be changes in the coaching staff, Kumar, who scored the winning goal in the 1975 HWC final against arch-rival Pakistan, said, "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."
"Thanks to the government's support, especially the Odisha government, we are hosting World Cups here, and our team should have capitalised on this. But we are hosting tournaments, and our team needs to improve. This World Cup performance has halted the good momentum we gained from the Tokyo Olympics," reckoned Kumar.
Former captain Sardar Singh said the debacle was due to the team's collective failure. "Hockey is a team game. If you want to win a tournament, 14 to 15 players of the squad need to perform at 70 to 80 per cent, which was missing in this World Cup," said the legendary midfielder, part of the Hockey India (HI) selection committee.
"Hardik's injury was a big blow as he was the main player in the midfield. He was instrumental in linking up with the forwards and creating opportunities, besides scoring a goal (against Spain)," he added. Sardar also agreed that Harmanpreet felt the pressure of captaincy as he missed one penalty corner after another.
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"He [Harmanpreet] felt the pressure of captaincy in a home World Cup. He is one of the best drag-flickers in the world and also did well in the Test series against Australia. But, he did not look his best, perhaps feeling the pressure. But, he is a world-class player and cannot be counted out," measured Sardar.
On head coach Graham Reid asking for a mental conditioning coach going ahead, Sardar said, "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."
HI president and former captain Dilip Tirkey said not reaching the quarterfinals of the World Cup after the high of the Tokyo Olympics less than two years ago was very disappointing. "Some players from whom we had a lot of expectations somehow could not perform. We all have accepted it. We got several penalty corners, but we scored a few from them. Something was missing in our defensive structure also," he felt.
(With inputs from PTI)
