‘Game is faster, Sardar failed to catch up’
LUCKNOW: Seems it’s ‘all over’ for former Indian hockey captain Sardar Singh. Hockey India’s high-performance director David John wants young legs with speed in the team for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and India are moving towards that goal.
“Our emphasis is on young legs with speed as we aren’t a strong nation in terms of physical strength like Australia and Germany. So our emphasis is on fast hockey and youngsters are better suited to this,” David said when asked why Sardar was left out of the Commonwealth Games.
He refused to say whether Sardar should retire, but pointed out that in the Azlan Shah Trophy, the 31-year-old Sardar at times lacked speed and it created a problem for the team. India finished fifth among six teams at Azlan Shah under Sardar. “He (Sardar) still has good skills, but in the last 12-18 months the game has become faster and Sardar is not up to it. Much would depend on how we pick our core group of 24 and also a development group of 24 after the national championship here,” said John.
“Whether to retire or not is Sardar’s call. He is very sensible and very competitive. He has played hockey at a very high level and still wants to play at the top, which is quite difficult for him now,” he said, adding, “We have good young players in the midfield, and we would like to pick those youngsters, who could serve the game till 2020.”
Commenting on Manpreet Singh-led India team for the Commonwealth Games, starting April 4 at Gold Cost in Australia, John said that this was the best team picked. “This is the best combination we picked this year. Selection was purely based on their form. They are a confident lot,” he said, adding, “Everyone is fit, healthy and raring to go.”
John said the Asian Games was on top of the agenda of the Hockey India as a podium finish would give India direct entry to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. “We have 8-9 big tournaments this year, but Asian Games is top. If we qualify for Tokyo, we will have two years to prepare.”
He also admitted that there were all possibilities of a change in the core group of 24 for the future events like Asian Games, Olympic qualifiers and the World Cup. “Players would keep on rotating from core group to development group so a healthy competition of performance would always be there between the players. There were a few good youngsters at the Azlan Shah tourney, and I would certainly like to give them a chance to play in big events in future.”