‘Players need to watch their diet as fare at the Village tempts’
MUMBAI: Dhanraj Pillay was the poster boy of Indian hockey for over two decades, and the period witnessed the metamorphosis from a skill-based sport to a contest decided by speed and fitness. Having been at the pinnacle, Pillay knows what it takes to do well at the Olympics. Excerpts from an interview:
How do you assess India’s chances at Rio?
Chief coach (Roelant Oltmans) has carried out the experiments he wanted to. At Sultan Azlan Shah, he dropped the senior players and tried out youngsters.
At the Champions Trophy, he dropped Sardar Singh and other senior players to test the strength of the squad.
The team is doing well, especially senior players like (VR) Raghunath, Sardar, (PR) Sreejesh, SV Sunil and Manpreet Singh.
All these players know how to handle the situation. We have young players in Devender Walmiki, Harmanpreet Singh and Surendar Kumar, so it’s a well-balanced team.
Do you think this team can end the Olympic drought? team cleared that hurdle and played the final.
Even in the final, they had the upper hand. They kept the Aussies quiet and ball possession was 79% in our favour in the last quarter. Going by this, this team can win the elusive medal.
What will be your advice to the players?
It will be to focus on the aim. Meet whoever you have to in the Olympic Village, but the focus should not shift from the aim.
What are the areas players should focus on?
They have to be cautious about diet. At the Olympic Village, the dining hall is open 24x7 and you can eat whatever you feel like. This is my experience that players reach there a week or 10 days before and indulge themselves, and gain weight.
The players have to focus the entire 60 minutes as we tend to concede late goals.
Oltmans seems to have taken care of that and the team has not conceded last-minute goals in recent times.
In the Champions Trophy final too, Australia pressed hard even in the last minute of the match but India did not allow them to score.