Indian hockey has developed bigger pool of players: Sardar

August 15, 2015 07:01 pm | Updated March 29, 2016 03:28 pm IST - New Delhi

Notwithstanding their poor penalty conversion rate in the recently concluded Europe tour, Indian captain Sardar Singh on Saturday said that hockey has certainly developed a bigger player pool with the future of the national sport looking bright.

India had started their European sojourn with back to back victories over France before defeating Spain 2-1 in a three-match series.

“The young players played exceptionally well and which is gradually adding to our strengths as we have a bigger pool of players to choose from before each tournament,” Sardar said after arriving at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here.

However, the age-old problem of poor penalty corner conversion continued to affect the Indians as they managed to score only five goals from short corners in the five matches.

The side looked vulnerable in their 1-4 loss to Spain and Sardar was quick to admit the teams follies.

“We are in high spirits after the win in the European Tour and have come back with many learnings along with the weaknesses that needs to be worked upon. I think we need to work on converting scoring opportunities through penalty corners and which will be our emphasis before the FIH World League Final later in the year,” he said.

High Performance Director and chief coach Roelant Oltmans also praised the Indian unit for its good showing.

“The team performed exceptionally well in the European Tour which proves that our players are ready to take on greater challenges,” the Dutchman said.

“The highlight was that we did not give away the ball possession easily to the opponents and with the FIH Hockey World League Final scheduled to take place towards the end of this year, I hope the team does its best and displays high level performances.”

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.