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Corruption, heavy defeats, and lack of playing quality. These are the things, that are today, synonymous with the India men’s national hockey team. Despite its past glories of the fifties, sixties, and seventies, India will enter the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil as the has-beens, the team that had a history of doing well in hockey competitions but lately have not been performing as well as they should be.
Despite entering this month as the sixth best ranked hockey team in the world, India barely qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics. It was during a controversial penalty shoot-out that India managed to win the field hockey tournament during the 2014 Asian Games against Pakistan.
Two of the penalties during that shootout, on which Pakistan scored, were wrongly disallowed by the umpire while one was disallowed for India, also wrongly. Despite an appeal being issued by Pakistan, it was not upheld.
Now, India will enter this tournament knowing that it will need to prove its critics wrong, that it deserves to be taken seriously again. This comes after a dismal performance during the 2012 Summer Olympics, where India lost all five of its group stage games en route to finishing as the last-place team.
India head coach, Roelant Oltmans, has already acknowledged how important this tournament shall be for Indian hockey.
“We need to make a statement this summer,” said the India head coach, who was only appointed two months ago, during a press conference in Delhi.
Team captain, Sardar Singh, also viewed the upcoming Olympic games as not only a good chance to show that the India hockey team has progressed but that Indian sport has progressed overall as well.
“It was not just the performance of the hockey team that failed in 2012 but it was India overall. We need to show how much we have grown as a sporting country in the last four years and that there is more to India than just cricket or wrestling,” said the 29-year old midfielder. “For the hockey team, this will be our chance to prove that we deserve to be among the elite of the game, that we are equal with Australia and the Netherlands, and also make the past greats of this game proud.”
In preparation for the 2016 Summer Olympics, India has taken part in various tournaments, notably, the World Hockey League tournament, a tournament that serves as the qualifying tournament for the Hockey World Cup. Despite finishing the group stage in second place and winning their quarter-final game against Malaysia, India were knocked-out in the semi-final against Belgium, losing 4-0.
India struggled from the beginning against Belgium. The result showed how much work was left for the team. However, after the tournament, events took a turn for the worst, as India’s head coach at the time, Paul van Ass, was reportedly fired for a breach of contract.
Indian news networks reported that reasoning to just be an excuse by the Indian Hockey Federation in order to get rid of him for “bad results” and escape blame themselves for India’s poor dismissal from the World Hockey League semi-final.
India, though, is still not officially knocked-out of the World Hockey League. As hosts of the final round, India automatically qualifies for the WHL’s final round later this month. India was seeded in Group B, along with Argentina, Germany, and the Netherlands.
“Hopefully this tournament can provide us with some encouragement before the upcoming Olympics,” said forward, Malak Singh, “We will have the home crowd support and hopefully qualify for the Hockey World Cup in front of our fans, who can give us the power we need to do well in the Olympics.”
All the games during the final round of the World Hockey League will be played at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium in Raipur, a stadium Oltmans said can be very slick and fast.
“The stadium in Raipur, I have been told, can be very slick and fast, meaning that our touches on the ball
need to be softer and that we need to take advantage of any sharp touches made by the opposition in order to win possession,” Oltmans said.
“The whole country will be watching us in anticipation,” said captain, Sardar Singh, “Not only on television but also at the ground itself. We need to use these people to help us reach our goal of proving to the rest of the world that India can be a hockey country again.”
Preparations will not stop there though for India. The Indian Hockey League will officially launch its fourth season in January 2016. The best players from around the world and also India will participate in the month-long league. The league will prove valuable experience for the India players, expose them to new game styles, and also new teammates and thus help them evolve as players.
The Hockey India League could also result in the rise of an unknown player who can help spur India on in Rio this summer, just like Yuvraj Walmiki did last season with the Delhi Waveriders. Walmiki scoring seven goals last season as he went on to become the emerging player of the tournament.
This coming Olympic tournament will be very important for Indian hockey and sport overall. India used to take pride in itshockey team and the results showed, winning seven of the first eight field hockey tournaments in Summer Olympic history, and winning a ninth in 1980.
Since then, the country has been hit with cricket fever, winning many tournaments in the sport many associate with India and South Asia. The sporting heroes of the country went from being hockey players or even soccer players to the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Saurav Ganguly and many other great cricket players.
Despite officially being the national sport of India, hockey saw itself pushed to the back by cricket. Now, with things slowly and steadily rising, India has a chance to show that it is not down and out in hockey and that they can prove to the world, and even themselves, that Indian hockey has a future. The future is bright and now is a chance to showcase a bit of that future.