Sultan Azlan Shah: The road ahead for Indian Hockey.

Most hockey fans have looked at the victory at Azlan Shah as an uprising in Indian Hockey. However, it is not so. Most of us who are amateur hockey fans don’t know this. But this is important.

Indian players must look to the European League for experience and exposure.

Sultan Azlan Cup has all the teams who are ranked below India. Australia has bought its developmental side, you cannot call them the same world champion team. Playing against these kind of teams won’t fetch India even good ranking points. India plays maximum 5-6 tournaments every year and most of them are invitational tournaments like SAZ. This won’t help the team in long run. Because there is a big difference among top 5 teams and the next 5 teams. So what is required in order to improve the game. In the past 10 years, no player has ever been selected as the player of the year. There were only two players who represented India in World Team of the year, Prabhjot Singh in year 2009 and Dilip Tirkey in two years before that.

So what should be done to improve the standard of our game?

@ Play at-least 10 tournaments every year, which has at-least 1-2 teams who are in top 5 ranking.

Prabhjot Singh is one of the few players who have earned accolades at the international stage.

@Like other countries send developmental sides to tournaments where the opponents are under ranked.

@ Send players to play for EHL (European Hockey League), they will improve the game as well as earn some money.

@ Increase the bench strength, bring in more players of junior teams to play senior levels.

@ Conduct national tournaments every year, it will bring out new players.

@ If possible try to start PHL again so that the players play whole year and improve their fitness.

@ Give more importance to coaches than bureaucrats who run the federation.

@ Former players should be invited to work on the skills of new players especially for the players of under-21 and junior teams.

@ The team used to perform very well in Junior World Cup, but when those palyers were introduced in the national side, Their performance was ordinary. Close the gap which comes in between those levels.

@ Another option is to form two teams,i.e. Team A and Team B for small and invitational tournaments. More players will help in forming a good team for big events like Champions Trophy, World Cup and Olympics.

@ Improve the fitness levels to compete against top teams.

It is necessary that the team plays against top teams. This will help improve the game and will help find a path to victory.

Victory belongs to the most persevering.

Edited by Staff Editor