India's recent win at the Asian Champions Trophy was creditable, but not a huge achievement considering the dipping hockey standards in Asia
Indian hockey players pose with the Asian Champions Trophy on arrival at the New Delhi airport on Monday. Pic/PTI
The Indian hockey team's Asian Champions Trophy (ACT) win in Malaysia needs to be put in perspective. Let's celebrate it, but not make it out to be a huge achievement simply because the sheer standard of the game has terribly dropped in the Asian region.
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India are currently ranked sixth in the FIH world rankings, while the other top teams at the ACT — Korea (World No 11), Pakistan (13), Malaysia (14), Japan (16) — were listed way below.
Sure, India rested senior defender V Raghunath (28) and were without goalkeeper PR Sreejesh (28) for the final, leading to the emergence of new stars like 'keeper Akash Chikte and forwards Affan Yousuf and Nikkin Thimmaiah among others.
And credit to chief coach Roelant Oltmans for this, as also, for Team India doing brilliantly by finishing with a historic silver medal at the FIH Champions Trophy in June at London, the same city where they finished with an embarrassing wooden spoon at the Olympics four years ago.
Then, the eighth-place finish at the Rio Olympics in August, where a new and favourable format saw four teams from each of the two six-team pools play the quarter-finals, can't be ignored either.
Crucial to win big trophies
Coach Oltmans rightly said on the team's return from the ACT title victory that it's important to learn how to win big tournaments now. The true test of Team India begins now, given this team is at a crucial pre-transitional stage, keeping in mind the all-important 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
In less than two years, the FIH World Cup (2018) will be played on home soil (November 28 to December 16 in Bhubaneswar), but the Olympics is what most hockey players consider the epitome of success.
Introducing young talent
The key challenge for Oltmans and his team of coaches is to introduce a string of young talent into a pool of players, where some big names will have to be phased out before the Tokyo Games.
They could do so by rewarding some promising names from the FIH Junior World that is also slated to be held on home soil — December 8-18 in Lucknow — with berths in the senior team.
The worry though here, just like in most other Indian sports, is that with the World Cup not too far away, some senior players might prolong their careers thereby jeopardising the planning and preparation for the Tokyo Games.
It is here where Oltmans and Hockey India will have to rule with a firm hand if they wish to prove right what Sreejesh said on landing in India on Monday: "India must now look to become the best in the world."
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