“It has to do a lot with the quality of players,” former member of the 1975 gold medal winning Indian team, Ashok Kumar slams current players after early World Cup exit

The Indian Hockey team disappointed everyone when they bowed out of the FIH Hockey World Cup after losing to New Zealand in the crossover game on penalties. The hosts were expected of big things as most people at least felt that the Indian team would finish on the podium for the first time since they won the gold medal back in 1975. However they fell flat in a tournament that had more negatives than they could ever imagine.

Ashok Kumar, a member of the Indian team that won the gold medal back in 1975 slammed the current Indian players and called them average as they failed to even reach the quarterfinals in a home World Cup. The Indian team will now play the 9th-16th classification matches on Thursday and Saturday in Rourkela before finishing a rather disappointing campaign.

The former international spoke about the facilities, the foreign exposure trips and all the necessities that have been fulfilled so that the team can put up a big performance at the World Cup in front of the home fans. But in return the team cannot even reach the last eight stage which speaks volumes about the current players according for Ashok Kumar.

“The team was given all kinds of support, 6-7 months camp, foreign exposure, top class infrastructure, the best of diets, what else could have been done? And what performance did they give? You cannot even reach the quarterfinals of a home World Cup in front of your fans,” Kumar said.

“It has to do a lot with the quality of players, ultimately the debacle was due to average players playing average games. That can’t win you a World Cup medal,” he added.

He made further assessment and shared h0ow the attackers looked out of ideas when they drove the ball in the opposition’s circle. He highlighted the lack of goals from open play which forced India to rely on penalty corners and with their main weapon, Harmanpreet Singh struggling, it was also going to be difficult for India. Ashok Kumar only hailed Akashdeep SIngh’s performance at the World Cup. “Whenever we attacked, most of the time we ended up at the opposition circle. I don’t know how the players were trained, there was no distribution of the ball, no creative passes, they simply didn’t know what to do. If you can’t score more than four goals against a team like Wales, then what are you doing?”

“Since, they cannot score from open play, they had to depend on penalty corners and Harmanpreet Singh was under tremendous pressure and he failed. We were not up to the mark in all departments of the game. Except for Akashdeep Singh, I would say no (outfield) player played well in the four matches,” Ashok Kumar highlighted.

Lastly he pointed out the issues in defense and there were many openings in every game India played but the matches against Wales and New Zealand forced the hosts to see the reality. Ashok Kumar simply cannot believe how the defenders allowed the Black Sticks to comeback twice in the game and also shared how the team missed an experienced leader in Rupinder Pal SIngh who would have been a solid defender nd also an alternative in penalty corners especially when Harmanpreet was totally out of form.

“The team failed miserably in defence also. They conceded two goals against Wales and then allowed New Zealand to come back twice after two-goal down. They cannot do that in a World Cup. I don’t know why Rupinder Pal Singh retired after the Olympics, he would have been a great asset in defence and PC conversion,” the 72-year-old concluded.