the former India High-Performance Director David John believes that the Indian men’s hockey team will summit the 2028 Olympics and do its best in many years by winning gold medals.
“In the 2024 and 2028 Games, most of our current juniors in the squad will be World Cup player. They would have played close to 300 international matches together by then and each would be around 30 years old,” he said on the sidelines of the Khelo India Youth Games match, suggesting that the team had the right to handle any kind of pressure. There will be experience.
Indian hockey has shown signs of resurgence, with the men’s team winning a bronze and the women’s side finishing fourth at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“It’s an exciting time for India but many squads including Germany, Australia, Belgium and Holland are also getting better,” said John.
John, who had been with the Indian team for several years before resigning, is back in the country as the hockey director of Odisha. He is excited about his work.
“It is a challenging role. But if Odisha becomes strong, Indian hockey becomes strong both in men and women,” he affirmed, adding that his aim and brief was to make his team No. 1 in the country.
In pursuit of this goal, Odisha is already building 20 more turfs for hockey, and that too in the most remote areas of the state where extreme poverty co-exists with abundance of natural talent.
“Soon, our children will be playing on synthetic and not grass from the grassroots level,” he said.
“Our next step is to have good coaches in each of these new grounds so that they can get the best coaching at the grassroots level. In eight years, you will see a different Odisha in hockey, and hopefully a different India.
The Australian expressed surprise at the Indians’ dribbling prowess, but insisted they needed to sacrifice them to become a world power again. “Don’t try to outdo your opponents. Modern hockey is all about 3D and aerial skills. Fortunately, these youngsters have imbibed all these skills,” he said, pointing to the fast-flow of matches.
“Our players are adept at being quick and attacking but they lose the ball to opponent ‘D’ because they run too close to the defenders. Worse, it allows the other side to counter-attack with devastating effect,” John said.
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