The man is as outspoken as his game was aggressive. Former captain and manager of the Indian Hockey team, Dhanraj Pillay, is quite practical and realistic realistic about India’s chances in the upcoming London Olympics.

“I will be very happy if our Indian team manages to finish in the top six at the Olympics,” Pillay explains. He points out that teams like Australia, Germany, the Netherlands and Great Britain have taken the game to another level, in terms of speed and the Indian team will have a fair bit of catching up to do, and quite a lot of work to put into it for that effect.

Having trained many youngsters, he stresses that aggression is very important to succeed at the highest level. “If you take the example of players such as Diego Maradona or Leander Paes, it was nothing but their aggressive intent and the will to win that catapulted them to success at the highest level. We have to continue playing aggressive hockey to fare well at the Olympics,” he reiterates.

The on-going controversy over the existence of two hockey federations has irked him, and he stresses that politics should be kept out of the game.

“We have lost out on some fine young players as they played for a league not officially recognized by the International Hockey Federation, and politics has always played a big part in the game. The need of the hour is to bring former players into the administration and give them a free hand to sort out this mess,” Pillay says candidly.