'Whatever happened at the Asian Games, that's a big learning curve for the players, coach and the staff.'
A 'versatile' and 'speedy' Gurbaj Singh will be key to the Indian hockey team's success in the upcoming 24th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup to be held in Ipoh, Malaysia, feels the national side's vice-captain and goalkeeper P R Sreejesh.
Disappointed with the bronze medal finish at the Asian Games, ace drag flicker Sandeep Singh on Sunday said that the Indian hockey team was the best in the quadrennial event but lack of video referral system deprived the team of a well-deserved victory against Malaysia in the semi-final.
Asian champions India have never won the Champions Trophy in its last 36 editions but will be hoping to claim the feat in the tournament's last edition.
The hosts will face arch-rivals Pakistan for a place in the final, the latter scoring 4-2 upset win over eight-time champions The Netherlands earlier in the day.
"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.
Indian women's hockey team suffered their second successive defeat at the hands of Asian giants China, who blanked them 4-0 to take an unassailable lead in the three-match series at Shanghai on Thursday.
India thrashed China 9-0 to stay in the hunt for top spot in the round-robin league competition of the fourth Asian Champions Trophy hockey tournament in Kuantan, Malaysia on Tuesday.
Tributes poured in for India's former hockey captain Mohammed Shahid who passed into the ages at a Gurgaon hospital following multiple organ failure on Wednesday.
India might have lost to Pakistan in the summit clash of men's hockey in the 12th South Asian Games but captain Mandeep Antil on Saturday sought to take the positives from the performance of his players, saying they have done well given the inexperience of the team. With the country's top players taking part in the ongoing Hockey India League, India fielded an inexperienced team mostly consisting of junior players and they failed to click as a unit in the SAG. India settled for the silver medal after losing twice to arch-rivals Pakistan, including in the final 0-1 in Guwahati on Friday night. India had just two senior players who had played some international matches in Antil himself and veteran Gurbaj Singh. Even Antil has played just 20-odd international matches while Gurbaj has donned India colours in more than 200 games. Pakistan had at least six players who played in the London Olympics. Antil said he was disappointed to have lost to Pakistan in the final, which he felt was a close match. "Any loss to Pakistan at any level is a disappointment. We wanted to win the gold but we could not do it. We played better (than the group match which also India lost 1-2) and it was a close match but we lost again," Antil told PTI.
Germany might be the twice Olympic champions defending their title in men's field hockey but top-ranked Australia will be the team to beat at next month's Rio Games.
India won the women's FIH Series Finals hockey tournament, beating hosts Japan 3-1 in the summit clash in Hiroshima on Sunday.
Asian Games will be a reality check for India's athletes after the Commonwealth Games high
For the 12th successive time, none could match up to India's regional might but the host country's record-breaking medal haul of 308 can hardly hide the fact that the standard of competition in the South Asian Games has failed to rise significantly.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday
'He did not take a loss lying down.' 'He inspired us to go to the next tournament with renewed confidence and helped us perform well.' 'That's the way I would remember him.'
In the medal standings, India were placed eighth with a compilation of seven gold, five silver and 17 bronze.
Indian eves spanked a hapless Belarus 5-1 win in the first hockey Test, in Bhopal on Thursday.
Favourites India demolished hapless Russia 10-0 in their opening match of the FIH Series Finals hockey tournament to start their 2020 Olympics qualification campaign on a rousing note, Bhubaneswar, on Thursday.
Baljit Dhillon, Baljit Singh Saini, Dinesh Nayak, Didar Singh, Tejbir Singh and goalkeeper Kamaldeep Singh have also been left out.
India's shooting ace Apurvi Chandela attained the World No 1 position in the women's 10m air rifle event while compatriot Anjum Moudgil rose to second.
Harmanpreet Singh converted two penalty corners to help India successfully defend its Sultan of Johor Cup Under-21 hockey title, beating Great Britain 2-1 in a keenly-contested final.
India retained the Asia Cup with a 7-2 drubbing of South Korea on Sunday and the decisive manner of that victory has given coach Joaquim Carvalho plenty of cause for optimism ahead of next year's Olympic qualifiers.
The Indian men's hockey team will have to guard against complacency when it takes on lower-ranked Russia, while a tricky contest awaits their female counterparts against United States in the two-legged Olympic qualifiers.
The view is that the attention on the national team is fleeting, incidental and dependent on the results they produce.
Minnows Austria continued to impress in the ongoing men's Junior Hockey World Cup as they spanked declining Asian powerhouse Korea 5-2 in Lucknow on Saturday to remain in contention for a surprise quarter-final berth from Pool A in the 16-team tournament.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
Shooters continued to deliver medals for India at the 17th Asian Games with the trio of Heena Siddhu, Rahi Sarnobat and Anisa Sayyed cliching a bronze in the women's 25m pistol event in Incheon on Monday.
India hockey coach Paul van Ass said inability to handle fast-paced attack resulted in his side's capitulation against World champions Australia in the FIH World League semi-finals in Antwerp.
'Congratulations MS Dhoniji and CSK. We are happy that at least some sportspersons are getting respect and love they deserve. For us, the fight for justice is still on,' Sakshi said in her tweet, which received more than 50,000 likes and nearly 10,000 retweets in 12 hours.
Asian champions India have been clubbed along side arch-rivals Pakistan in the same pool in the men's Hockey World League (HWL) Semi-Final 2017 to be held in London.
Manavjit Singh Sandhu and trap shooters Anwer Sultan and Mansher Singh earned India two silver medals.
Following in the footsteps of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Suresh Raina has become the second cricketer to be associated with the Hero Hockey India League (HHIL) after he was named today as the co-owner of the Uttar Pradesh Wizards franchise.
Para discus thrower Aneesh Kumar Pillai on Wednesday tested positive for COVID-19, forcing him to miss his competition in the Birmingham Games.
New Zealand pulled off the biggest surprise of the ongoing World League Semifinals with a 2-0 win over World Cup silver medalists Australia in the women's preliminary league in Antwerp.
There was no stopping the Indian juggernaut at the 12th South Asian Games with the country's swimmers, wrestlers and weightlifters continuing their dominance in the competition to fetch a bulk of the gold medals, in Guwahati, on Sunday.
Indian men's hockey team captain Sardar Singh and former skipper of the national women's side Saba Anjum were conferred with the prestigious Padma Shri Award by President Pranab Mukherjee at a glittering ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhavan.
India will not take part in baseball, bowling, fencing, karate, modern pentathlon, rugby, softball, soft tennis and triathlon because of the athletes' poor standards.
India swept the International Hockey Federation's annual awards on Wednesday, claiming all the top honours, based on a voting system which was lambasted as a "failure" by men's Olympic champions Belgium, prompting the FIH to say that it would try to figure why some associations did not cast their ballot.
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