‘Golden Greats’ still see a ray of hope for Indian hockey

New Delhi: Indian Hockey might not be the same force it used to be earlier, but then the former hockey greats of the country are optimistic about it and see no reason as why can’t there be redemption in the game.

The likes of Leslie Claudius, Gurbux Singh, Keshav Dutt feels that Indian Hockey has indeed fallen from the glory but then they can always reach the spot they once were at and as a matter of fact the sport has already started to build it way back to the top.

“We had been the most dominant force in Indian Hockey once. But then it is unfortunate to see that the game has suffered a lot since 1980 and we failed to secure a single medal in the Olympics and it can be blamed on a collective attitude change towards the game. But now I see a change in the attitude and this current Indian Team is determined to win and take hockey to new heights. And if they keep this same attitude hockey would return to its past glory,” said Gurbux, Olympian Gold medalist in 1964.

Keshav Dutt, Olympic gold medalist 1948 and 1952 said that even though he does not follow the sport much these days but heard a lot about them. “I do not follow the game much but then heard a lot about the players. And if they live up to what I have been hearing about them they can surely win a medal this time and start the revival process of Indian Hockey,” said Dutt.

Dutt acknowledged the fact that playing European nations is a very difficult but then if the boys realize their responsibility when they are representing the team at the Olympics, the things could fall in their way.

Leslie Claudius, gold medalist at the 1948, 1952 and 1956 and silver at 1960 echoed his friend Dutt sentiments and said that it is indeed going to get very tough at the Olympics. “The game has changed a lot and it has become very fast and very physically much more demanding but then skills still matters a lot. I have not seen the boys play but then spent around two hours with the skipper Bharat Chettri and the way he was speaking it looked the team wants to do good in the Olympics. It would be very tough but then and it would be good to see as to how they perform,” said Claudius.

Talking about Coach Michael Nobbs, Claudius said, “He is a good coach but then a team’s performance do not depend on coach. Players make a coach good or bad and their performance is all that matters. A coach cannot teach anything different to a professional player,” added three times Olympics gold medallist.

Jaswant Rajput, who played along with Claudius and Dutt, said that it is indeed disheartening to see the fall of the game in the country but then now he can feel that the game is on the rise again and to do that everyone needs to support the team well who have working so hard.

By Samikshan Dutta Choudhury
Indian Sports News Network