Vaibhav Sharma

Tribune News Service

“Don’t read too much into reputations. Our beating Canada is a big positive step. They might not be the best, but in terms of ranking they are above us. So the 6-0 scoreline has to be considered as progress made and also as a big step ahead in terms of achieving larger goals next year,” says India’s star hockey player Rajpal Singh after he returned to the city from India’ Canada tour.

“It is a lot like India, with so many NRIs and PIOs. We were really comfortable and the victory made it even sweeter. Canada were the first team to qualify for the World Cup, and we look at this as confirmation of our efforts that we beat them at home by such a big margin,” he added.

Looking ahead Rajpal said, “The big tournament is the Champions Challenge. Our camp starts in Pune from tomorrow, and then on November 22 we head to Spain for a week’s training. Our aim has to be nothing but Gold. We cannot be thinking about anything else. The top team goes through for the Champions Trophy and we want to be that team.”

He further added that the team was gelling well and all players were looking forward to training at the camp in Pune. “It has been a good six-eight month period for us. We have felt the progress in our game and it is coming out in terms of results as well. But this is just the beginning and we have to keep up the hard work.”