Nobbs says form of Sardara & Sandeep will be crucial to team’s performance in London Olympics

India’s hockey coach Michael Nobbs says vice-captain Sardara Singh and ace drag-flicker Sandeep Singh’s form would be crucial to the team’s chances in the upcoming London Olympics. According to a report in The Hindu, Nobbs said, “I think we have the harder pool by long way and it would be foolhardy for any of these teams to say where they will finish. We are all trying to do the best we can. I expect the team to do its best and to try and finish as well as it can. Everyone forgets there are 11 other teams there as well.”

Nobbs added, “Not just in my opinion, but Sardara at this point in time probably is one of the two or three best players in the world. If he plays well we will do well. On the other hand, if Sandeep scores a bagful of Penalty Corner goals that will also be the key (to our success),” he added.

Back in the Olympics after missing out the Beijing Games, eight-time champions India have been placed in a tough Pool B alongside reigning champions Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Korea and Belgium.

According to IBNLive.com, sharing his thoughts Tushar Khandker said that the present team was India's fittest hockey team. Talking on the pressure of playing in Olympics, Khandekar said, “I am not feeling any kind of pressure that I am going to play first time in the Olympics. I know we have got only two players who have played Olympics before, but in our team there are a lot of senior players who have played a lot of international hockey. So for this reason there is no pressure on any player.”

“It's good for us that we are here almost for a month before the Olympics. It's helping us in getting used to of this weather and atmosphere, because London [weather] will be almost the same. These matches [in France and Spain] will help us in London because we are playing against top teams in the world,” Khandekar added.

Meanwhile according to a report in The Times Of India, Nobbs said, “Sport is sport and it's so unpredictable at times, you can only prepare as well as you can and sometimes just hope it all works out. I would hate to see all the hard work everyone has done in the last year to try and resurrect hockey in India go down the drain with a poor result. People's expectations are extremely high, forgetting that we are ranked 10th in the world and due to a systemic breakdown over years it's a difficult problem to fix. When I first came to India everyone said, 'Forget where we could come at the Olympics, we need to qualify.' The first question I was asked afterwards was, 'What medal will we win?' Strange! This is a new crop of players and they are not burdened by the past. They want to make their own future.”