London: India’s disastrous hockey campaign at the London Games ended with a humiliating bottom spot finish out of 12 competing nations, and it prompted a dejected skipper Bharat Chetri to say that the former champions were not good enough to play on a big stage like the Olympics.
“We thought we could do well here, but the team was not good enough for a top-class event like the Olympic Games,” said Chetri after India lost 2-3 to South Africa in the 11-12th place classification match on Saturday.
India lost all their five pool matches and the loss to South Africa completed the most miserable showing at the Olympics for the eight-time gold medallists, who in 2008 had failed to qualify for the Beijing Games.
“We need to be better prepared for such events, where experience seems to matter a lot more than we thought,” said Chetri.
India’s poor marksmanship and easy squandering of the ball inside the striking circle caused most of their woes.
India’s campaign finished with an all-loss record from six matches and they were always chasing the South African side after Andrew Cronje opened the scoring in the eighth minute.
India equalised through Sandeep Singh in the 14th minute before Timothy Drummond gave South Africa a 2-1 lead in the 34th.
Lloyd Norris-Jones increased the lead in the 66th minute before India pulled one back through Dharamvir Singh.
After the match, the hockey team’s assistant coach Mohammed Riaz warned that heads will roll and that tough decisions lie ahead for the team.
“If the senior players are not able to perform, perhaps it is time for them to move on,” said Riaz.
“We had a very bad tournament. We build pressure on ourselves by repeatedly missing chances in all matches,” added the former Olympian.
Meanwhile, Hockey India secretary general Narender Batra, while taking full responsibility, has ordered an internal inquiry into the debacle. The internal reports of coach Michael Nobbs, the team manager and physiotherapist will be submitted within ten days.
“Being the head of the family, I take moral responsibility for the debacle. I would like to apologise to the nation on behalf of the entire team,” Batra said.
Asked whether any heads will roll, Batra refused to pinpoint a particular individual.
“I won’t like to put the blame on any single individual, hockey is a team game and we failed to deliver as a team. (PTI)