KPS Gill calls it ‘tragic’ loss

Wednesday, May 13

Mumbai: The dissolved Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) supremo KPS Gill labelled India’s premature exit from the Asia Cup as ‘tragic’ and said the Indian Olympic Association needs to get its house in order at the earliest to avoid further tragedies.

Taking a dig at IOA president Suresh Kalmadi, Gill said: “He has already killed athletics in our country and now he is doing the same with hockey. I am surprised why no one is pointing this out.”

He felt the team has paid heavily for being over confident and time has now come for the team to do some introspection. “The wins have been misrepresented in the media by them. Was it a revival of hockey? Here we get the answer,” he said, adding, “There has been a tremendous decline in standard over the last one year. It takes a lot of hard work to win. Playing lower ranked or second string side and beating them do not mean we are doing well.”

Gill says we are going the Pakistani way now by over depending on drag flicker Sandeep Singh and that will act as a deterrent in long term. “Pakistan were completely gone after Sohail Abbas announced his retirement. The same is happening to us. We are relying too much on Sandeep which is harmful for him and the team as well.”

He said poor selection and not giving a chance to talented youngsters contributed to their failure. “A few guys who should not be playing anymore are travelling with the team,” he said, refusing to name any. “Mainly our defence is letting us down and we need to improve.”

But he hopes that under the new coach things will improve and that he should be given proper time to form a new team.

“The entire process of team building has to start again from scratch. We have to give Brasa all the assistance and allow him to spend the amount of time he wants to select new players and build a new team. We have already wasted one year and can’t afford to lose another.”