NEW DELHI, July 20: India’s former men’s hockey team captain Sardar Singh has said that his sole regret in his celebrated career is not winning an Olympic medal for the country but he feels the current team under Manpreet Singh can break the jinx and make a podium finish in Tokyo next year.
India’s hockey team is the most successful team ever in the Olympics, having won eight gold, one silver and two bronze medals.
However, India last won a gold in Hockey in 1980 in Moscow Olympics. Since then, they have participated in eight Olympic editions but have failed to make a podium finish.
“Having played 314 international matches, I will always regret not being able to add an Olympic medal on the wall back home,” Sardar was quoted as saying by Hockey India.
“But watching this team grow from strength to strength in the past year and the way they played the FIH Hockey Pro League earlier this year, I have great hope that they can bag that elusive Olympic medal. They definitely have a realistic chance in Tokyo,” he added.
The Tokyo Olympics were scheduled to be played this year but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, they have been postponed till summer of 2021.
With the Games being postponed by a year, Sardar feels the Indian team will get some time to unearth new talent and work on their short-comings.
“The next one year will be extremely critical for this team. They have the time to build on the new talent that is available. Some of the youngsters like Rajkumar, Dilpreet, Vivek Sagar, Gursahib have shown great promise and trying them in big-match scenarios like the Pro League was a good decision by Chief Coach Graham Reid,” said Sardar.
“With the Olympics being postponed, we have the time to work on our short-comings. Converting chances continues to be one of the grey areas but I feel we have been finishing much better than we were two or three years ago,” he added. (UNI)
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