Indian hockey has benefitted from HIL

March 05, 2015 08:14 pm | Updated 08:14 pm IST - NEW DELHI:

The 3rd edition of the Hockey India League is over and while Roelant Oltmans has traded his temporary Uttar Pradesh Wizards jersey for the India one as the national High Performance Director, he insists that the fallouts from the HIL are more lasting than the one-month tournament.Currently in charge of the Indian women’s team for the upcoming Hockey World League Round 2, Oltmans believes the Indian men have benefitted vastly from the HIL. “The league is fantastic for hockey in India. In the first year the Indian players were absolutely not at the level of the foreign players here. But this year, the Indians were matching them in every department. There is always some overseas player who has an outstanding tournament but with the exception of one or two, overall the levels are equal,” Oltmans said here.Seeking long-term results from the HIL Oltmans said the target was to lift the levels of not just the national campers but every player. “One of the most important reasons for HIL is to improve the level of players. Apart from the guys who are already in the national team, we have seen several youngsters who have shown they can match the top level. Harmanpreet Singh is one we all saw. There is a lot of improvement in the teams’ structures also and I think it was a very high quality event,” Oltmans added.

Goalkeepers disappoint

However, Oltmans admitted that the one area of concern was goalkeeping with not many Indian keepers impressing the Dutchman. “For me, at this moment, Harjot Singh is absolutely the number two. Let’s be happy that Sreejesh has taken a huge step in the last one year. I think he really became one of the better goalkeepers in the world and that’s a great effort, from where he came to where he is now. Harjot too has the potential to become a very good goalkeeper.“But, we have to be honest, the other Indian goalkeepers did not impress too much and we need to work very hard to improve their level. One of the things to do would be to see our Indian goalkeepers get more chances of playing in the HIL. Most teams prefer their foreign goalkeepers and that’s an area we have to look carefully at.

“Adrian (D’Souza) is part of the Indian lot. The best way to get a chance is to show your performance. His performance in the tournament has not been exceptional. But that doesn’t mean we put a final cross through him. We have followed him of course, and we need to see if he gets that second chance or not. Abhinav Pandey was good (on the junior tours) but he did not play the HIL. So we have to make sure they get their chances to reach the same international standards as our other players do,” Oltmans said.

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