A 24-strong team for the men's hockey series against Japan was announced on Thursday, following a week-long preparatory camp held at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium, that commenced on April 22.
Hockey India said it has drawn up a list of competitions both for the senior men and women's teams in the run-up to next year's Tokyo Olympics. The detailed plan involves playing a number of matches against top teams in the world.
With the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games being postponed by a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sardar feels the Indian team will get some time to work on its grey areas and unearth new talent.
'We have stopped eating sweets, chocolates, spicy and oily food. We are are taking low carbs and balanced diet and feeling better'
'We need to play attacking hockey, our strength. When we try to play defensive, we tend to be too much defensive which provides more chances to opponents. We need to put pressure on them (from the start)'
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday.
Rising Indian midfielder Manpreet Singh was named the 'Junior Player of the Year' by the Asian Hockey Federation in its Congress held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
An impressive England demolished Pakistan 8-2 in their second Pool A match to register their best-ever win in the history of the FIH Hockey Champions Trophy.
Inspirational men's team captain P R Sreejesh and fast-rising drag-flicker Harmanpreet Singh are the two Indians in contention for different honours at the FIH annual awards which will be given away in a formal ceremony for the first time, in Chandigarh on February 23.
"Reach and revenue" has been Narinder Batra's agenda going into the polls and soon after becoming the first non-European President of the International Hockey Federation, the veteran Indian sports administrator vowed to take the game across the globe. Batra, who is the Hockey India President, defeated David Balbirnie of Ireland and Australia's Ken Read to become the 12th FIH President -- the first Asian to grab the post in the world body's 92-year-old history. Batra got 68 votes in his favour while Balbirnie and Read managed 29 and 13 votes respectively. Out of 118 voters, only 110 voted while eight abstained.
India were outclassed 0-4 by hosts Belgium in a lop-sided last-four clash, with Florent Van Aubel's fine hat-trick playing a pivotal role in the side's passage to the final of the FIH Hockey World League semi-finals in Antwerp.
A 21-member Indian men's hockey team will embark on a 15-day tour of Europe, starting July 31. High Performance Director Roelant Oltmans will take over as the chief coach of the side following the unceremonious ouster of Paul Van Ass.
The Netherlands Robert Van der Horst and Lidewij Welten won the men's and women's International Hockey Federation (FIH) Player of the Year awards, respectively, for their performances in 2015.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday.
Using a sledgehammer to fix some ills can cut down a game at its peak, warns Shekhar Gupta.