Indian hockey team not carrying any baggage of medal expectations

One thing Indian hockey coach Michael Nobbs would be heaving a sigh of relief about is the lack of baggage of expectations his team would carry into the London Olympics. Given India’s glorious run at the Olympics (won 8 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze medals), expectations have been invariably sky-high every time our hockey team steps onto the Olympic arena. 

However, India’s ignominy of not qualifying for the 2008 Beijing Olympics (for the first time in its history) – a significant low the sport witnessed – diluted the enthusiasm and interest among all and sundry. However, the clinical fashion in which India qualified for the 2012 Olympics has once again ignited renewed interest in the sport.

Although hockey has once again started to grab the public eyeballs, every hockey fan’s expectation is now tinged with pragmatism. We all know that hockey has changed a lot over the years. Natural grass (where India dominated world hockey) was replaced by synthetic turf, which also brought about a steady decline in India’s Olympic fortunes.

Now the line of thought in Indian hockey circles is that the Olympics should serve as a springboard for our team to regain its lost glory. No doubt, just about everybody would be overflowing with excitement at the lip-smacking prospect of India making a medal finish at London but there is something called ‘Reality Check’ which convinces us that this team can only spring a mighty surprise by achieving a podium finish.

There are hushed whispers that the Indian team’s performance can be termed ‘creditable’ if they can find a spot in the top-6. Indeed, a top-6 finish would be a huge confidence-booster for India and also sow the seeds of our arrival in the top-3 of world hockey sooner than latter.

On so many occasions we have seen teams deliver their best when they have nothing to lose and the same applies for India. This might work in our favour as they can play with a free mind sans the fear of losing and with any self-induced pressure.

The Bharat-Chetri-led side with the world’s best half-back Sardara Singh; one of the world’s lethal drag-flickers Sandeep Singh and two of the zippiest forwards – Shivendra Singh and SV Sunil – is certainly not short on experience.

India has this tendency to lose their opening match at Olympic almost on a consistently in recent times. Given such a scenario, India’s opening game against Netherlands would determine whether the team under Nobbs has been able to rectify the shortfalls that have dogged us for long, and made any significant improvements that can see us once again emerge as a world hockey powerhouse.