New Delhi, 7 December 2020: Hockey players in India are used to hectic activity in the fag end of the year. This has been the routine in the domestic seasons with leading tournaments being held in this period. However, since 2010 India hosted world’s best tournaments too in this spell. These include Men’s World Cup in 2018, FIH Hockey World League Final 2017, FIH Junior Men’s World Cup in 2016, FIH Hockey World League Final 2015, and the FIH Champions Trophy in 2014. Naturally therefore players are nostalgic as they had to sit out, camp out, this year due to COVID-19 disturbances.
Listen to what Lalit Upadhyay had to say on this unexpected vacuum.
“It’s perhaps the first time in many years that we don’t have a tournament around this time of the year in India. Some of us in the National Camp have been quite nostalgic recalling our past matches during this period and were feeling quite emotional about how far we have come on the international stage. We have successively improved performance since the 2014 FIH Champions Trophy in Bhubaneswar and have been able to climb up the world rankings.
“It has been six years since that tournament but it still remains very fresh in our memories. Though most of us had played Hockey India League (HIL) matches in the Kalinga Stadium, the FIH Champions Trophy was the first international tournament we were playing there (in Bhubaneswar) and the incredible support by fans was absolutely amazing. It was during this tournament that we got a sense of the passionate spectators there who were not just supporting for India but had turned up full-house for matches between different foreign teams as well. It was a great, fun-filled experience.”
Lalit further highlighted the growth of Indian Men’s Hockey team over the years.
“If I look back at how we played then in 2014 and how we play now as a team, I feel we have come a long way and have grown from strength-to-strength. We don’t choke in tense moments anymore and we have learnt to put up a fight-back if required. Our performance, particularly in the last two years, have been note-worthy, having achieved good success rate against top teams like Belgium, Netherlands and Australia.”