Indian coach eyes comeback in China

NEW DELHI: The inaugural Asian Champions Trophy in China next month will launch India’s bid to qualify for the London Olympics, the team’s new Australian coach said on Thursday.

Michael Nobbs, who took charge of India in July for a five-year period, was confident the eight-time Olympic champions still possessed enough talent to regain their old glory.

“Every team, without exception, has its good and bad phases,” Nobbs told reporters at the team’s training camp in Bangalore. “My job is to make sure the bad phase of Indian hockey is replaced by the good phase.”

India’s first real test under Nobbs will come when they take on the continent’s finest in the Asian Champions Trophy to be played in the Chinese town of Ordos from September 3-11.

The tournament features the top six at the Asian Games in Guangzhou last year – gold medallists Pakistan, losing finalists Malaysia, third-placed India, South Korea, Japan and China.

“If we do well, it will mean we are on the right track. If the team does really bad, we will know how much more needs to be done,” Nobbs said.

India, who failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics in 2008, can book a place in the 2012 London Games only if they win the qualifying tournament at home in New Delhi next February.

India is also due to host the International Hockey Federation’s elite Champions Trophy in New Delhi from December 3-11.

Nobbs, 57, who represented Australia in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, said India must quickly adapt to modern techniques of the top teams if they were to prevail against the best.

“Australia adopted the Indian style of hockey and modernised it over the last 20 years to become such a powerful team,” Nobbs said of the current world number one side.

“India can’t afford to be left behind any longer. What Australia did in 20 years to reach the top, we must do in the next 10 months.

“It’s not going to be easy, but it can be done.”

Nobbs succeeded Spaniard Jose Brasa, whose contract was not renewed after India failed to win the Asian Games title last year.

The Australian, who was selected over former Dutch stars Roelant Oltmans and Jacques Brinkman for the Indian job, will remain at the helm till the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.