Sardar Singh was the vice-captain of Indian hockey team that participated at the London Olympics. He was the only saving grace for team India which finished at number 12th position. He recently was honoured with the prestigious Arjuna Award.
On India’s poor performance in the London Olympics, Sardar said, “We did not play to our potential. We were pretty upbeat about our chances going into the London Olympics. Our preparation looked good but things did not work out for us. It was a disappointment for all the players. We knew that we let our country down as a lot was expected from us.”
When asked about the reasons for India’s debacle, he said, “According to me the biggest problem that we faced was passing the ball. We did not control the ball well that was very disappointing. Accurate passing is very important and we failed on that front.”
Sardar denied that there were any problems with the strategies, “I don’t think that there was any problem in the strategy making. We have been playing like that from the past one year and we did play well. We can’t blame the strategy based on one tournament.”
Indian hockey team has suffered a lot of criticism and people are saying that there should be some massive changes in the team, but Sardar does not agree to that. “The same team has been doing well from the past one year. We have some class players in the team and the combination worked for us quite well in the past. It is true that our performance at the Olympics was not good. But changing the complete team on the basis of one tournament is not correct”, said Sardar.
Before the Olympics, the blue turf in London was surrounded by controversies, but Sardar played down the fact that the turf had anything to do with India’s performance.
Sardar said, “It will not be right to blame the turf for our performance. The turf did not have any effect on the game. We did not play up to the standards and that was the sole reason why we couldn’t do well in the Olympics.”
On winning the prestigious award the crafty mid-fielder said, “Obviously it feels good. It always feels good to get recognition in the country and I feel honoured that my name has been nominated for such prestigious award.”
Sardar stressed on the fact that India should look ahead as there are some major competitions coming up, “We have a few major tournaments like the Champions Trophy and the World Cup coming up. The team will look to forget what happened at London and we will focus for the challenges ahead”, he said.
By Indian Sports News Network
