“Familes sold even cars for their wards to be here”

As the New Zealand colts walloped Poland the winner was not just the country, but the sacrifice and spirit that went behind the team being here in Singapore in the first place.

New Zealand defeated Poland 8-1 on the Pitch 2 in Singapore on the inaugural day.

New Zealand Hockey Federation did not have enough funding to foot the bills for the tour, therefore it was left to whole lot sacrifices from the part of players and their families, that made the Junior World Cup possible for the bunch of youngsters.

“Even a player’s family sold car to generate the fund, I was told, you know”, said Peter Miskimmin who is profusely grateful to the players’ family and the boys who left no stone unturned to be here, and to do well.

Each player seemed to have paid around 3000 Euros to be part of the team.

“I am so grateful to those players and their families they realized the dream of New Zealand being here”, said Peter speaking to stick2hockey.com after the match. “Their commitment is motivation for us to do better and better”.

Coach Peter Miskimmin, who played the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, regretted the team did not have much time for preparation.

“We had just two camps of each three days, that’s all what was possible”.

Last occasion the New Zealand colts played an international was a year ago at KL 8-Nation.

There is actually a message for Indian team and the coaching management. They are lucky to have total government funding for all their program, even if meant going to play test series at Argentina.

The sporting fraternity salute the New Zealand team here for their spirit and commitment.