Sports minister concerned with hockey team’s poor show in Azlan Shah
NEW DELHI: Sports minister Ajay Maken on Monday expressed concern over Indian hockey team’s performance in the just concluded Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament, where India cut a sorry figure by finishing sixth in the competition.
“It is a matter of concern for all of us the way Indian hockey team has performed at the Azlan Shah Cup tournament.
“In two editions before this, we were the champions and I had hoped that this year also we would win the tournament,” said Maken after inaugurating the Hockey Training for children under “Come and Play Scheme” on Monday.
Maken also said that if team’s poor show continues then India’s dream run to the Olympics would be over.
“We have two most important tournaments coming up – the Champions Trophy and the Olympic qualifiers. And unless we qualify for the Olympics, our dream run to the Olympics would be over as far as the hockey is concerned,” said the minister.
Insisting that the ongoing dispute between Hockey India (HI) and India Hockey Federation (IHF) is responsible for the current status of the game in India, he said, “Problem as far as hockey is concerned is the continuing dispute between HI and IHF.
“I personally tried to intervene and also met KPS Gill along with HI officials and tried to see if they can reach some kind of a common agreement but unfortunately it could not happen at that point in time but we will try again.”
India, who share with Australia the record of winning the Azlan Shah Cup five times, came into the tournament with the hopes of completing a hat-trick of titles after winning outright in 2009 and being joint champions with South Korea in 2010.
But they were out of medal contention after successive defeats at the hands of Pakistan and New Zealand.
In the tournament opener, India lost to South Korea 2-3 but came back strongly to beat hosts Malaysia and drew 1-1 against world champions Australia.
But in the subsequent games, India squandered leads to go down to Pakistan (1-3) and New Zealand (3-7), which dashed their medal hopes.