east India Men’s hockey chief coach Roelant Oltmans has blamed a lack of tactical awareness and a non-existent club culture for India’s early exit from the ongoing FIH Men’s edition. World cup.
India lost the crossover match to New Zealand and failed to make it to the quarter-finals after going down 4-5 in sudden death.
India’s current head coach Graham Reid also expressed concern about the lack of club culture after the Hockey India League (HIL) ended in 2017.
“There is no club culture in India, that’s for sure. And the players need to continue playing the game, which is lacking in this team,” Oltmans, who was at the helm of the Indian team’s affairs from 2015 to 2017, told PTI in an interview.
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“These Indians are brilliant hockey players, there is no doubt about it. But you need to know what to do at what moment of the game. If all of a sudden, you are 11 against 10, what are you going to do?” added the Dutchman, who also served as the high-performance director of Indian hockey from 2013 to 2015.
India were unable to take advantage of the conditions after New Zealand were reduced to 10 men in the crossover match.
After New Zealand led 3–3 in the fourth quarter, Nick Ross received a yellow card in the 53rd minute and was suspended for five minutes. New Zealand defended doggedly to take the match into a penalty shootout and then sudden death.
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India had five minutes before the end of the match when a New Zealand player was dismissed. What was India doing at such a moment? “You need to play tactical games, execute them properly,” said Oltmans, who was India’s head coach during the 2016 Rio Olympics.
“The Germans scored two goals in three minutes (against England), that’s the difference, it’s something India still need to work on.” I was with the team Play Authority of India (SAI) Center in Bengaluru when he was on top.
“Absolutely, it (having a mental conditioning coach) makes a difference. When I was the head coach before the (Rio) Olympics, I had a psychologist on my staff. It’s more or less the same as a mental-optimization coach.
“For the physical part of the game, we have physical training, for the tactical part of the game, we have tactical training, for skill training we have drag-flick trainers. But the mental aspect made a big difference and we don’t have a serious trainer there. It’s weird,” Oltmans said.
He said that having too many responsibilities on captain Harmanpreet Singh could have affected his performance in the World Cup. Harmanpreet struggled to score with her drag-flick, which is being blamed for India’s early exit.
“In a team, you always know who your leaders are. Harmanpreet has been on the scene since the 2016 Junior World Cup and now we are talking about 2023. Over the years, she has shown that she can be an important player,” said Oltmans, explaining how Harmanpreet was given the leadership role.
“He (Harmanpreet) is leading the defense and he is the main penalty-corner taker. We want to give them so many responsibilities at the same time. I am sure he has the qualities to lead the team, but too many responsibilities can take a toll on him, although I know he is a very calm and relaxed player in stressful situations.” Oltmans, who played for Pakistan, Malaysia and the Netherlands , who has also coached national teams, said that India should do more to find and groom talented players, an aspect which, he said, was lacking in the country compared to countries like the Netherlands.
“You need to develop talent in every aspect of the game. Some players from that Junior World Cup winning Indian team are in this senior World Cup but (it) is not enough.
“Players like Dipsan Tirkey, Harjeet Singh were in that (junior) team. where were they; They are out of system. I don’t see them anymore.
“Nurturing talent is an important part because you need to groom the next generation. Of course, not everyone can be included in the national team. But we need to ensure that there is a continuous flow of talent.” The 68-year-old coach, however, warned other countries not to discount India’s pursuit of a 2024 Paris Olympics podium finish.
“They (India) were on the podium in Tokyo, why can’t they be there (in Paris)? There is a lot of talent in this country. Make proper plans, execute them properly, use the right people and you will be there.” He also welcomed the national federation’s plan to revive the Hockey India League (HIL).
“Absolutely, HIL will be really beneficial for Indian hockey if it comes back. Not only senior players of the national team, junior players will also be benefited. In the period when HIL was there (till 2017), India won the Junior World Cup in 2016 (Lucknow).
“Normally, the PC conversion rate was one in three and later one in four, that was fine. But, now, it’s one in five or one in six, that’s too low. We have to look at it again.” needs to be improved.
“If you are not scoring penalty-corner goals with your drag-flicks, you should change your mindset and see what we can do to score. We may see more goals in the next big tournament.” He said that there is no harm in adopting the old method of taking hits directly from the PC instead of drag-flicks.
“We’ve seen that already, England scored from that (PC hit), even South Korea scored. So it could be drag-flicks, hitting or variations depending on the situation. In the end, there are only five defenders including the goalkeeper. You can have 10 attackers if you want. So we can think about how we can get 50 per cent penalty corners.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)