By Paritosh Pramanik
Nagpur, July 9, 2016
THE Olympic badge was placed just above the tricolour on his well ironed Indian blazer. Inside the dark blue coloured blazer was a heart that still beats for Indian hockey. Olympian and 1975 World Cup gold medal winner Ashok Kumar, son of hockey legend Major Dhyanchand, poured his heart out recalling several instances of how his chest swelled with pride whenever Indian team took top position at the podium, as he interacted with ‘The Hitavada’ at the sidelines of a square naming function after his father.
The 66-year-old was happy with the Indian team’s performance in the recently-concluded Champions Trophy as well as their show in Sultan Azlan Shah meet. In both the tournaments India finished a creditable second winning silver medals.
With just a couple of weeks left for the Rio Olympics, Ashok Kumar felt that the morale of the team should be at an all-time high.
“They have performed exceedingly well in past few months. Two silver medals in two reputed tournaments is a good sign. It shows that Indian hockey is going in the right direction,” said the 1975 World Cup winner. But Ashok Kumar refused to predict where India would finish in the quadrennial event.
“We are playing really well. The past few months were really great for Indian hockey. But the players will have to continue in the same manner at Rio. Any team can win the gold provided they play to their potential on the given day. It’s very hard to predict where India will finish but I am sure they would better their last performance,” he said.
India finished with wooden spoon at London Olympics four years back.
To elaborate his point Ashok Kumar gave example of Portugal football team which reached the Euro final. “Look where they are today and how they reached. They played hard and fought hard to reach final,” he explained.
The 1972 Munich Olympic bronze medal winner said Indian team needs players like Ronaldo and Messi.
“We have a great forwards. But Indian hockey needs players like Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo or Argentina’s Lionel Messi. If we get players like these, then nobody can stop us from winning medals regularly,” he pointed out.
“We have to improve our conversion rate. We create beautiful moves but lack in finishing. Same is with penalty corners. We have to convert those half chances,” Ashok Kumar added.
Praising the present bunch of players Ashok Kumar said, “these players are mentally very strong. They have worked really hard to reach this far. They have proved this in Champions Trophy final against Australia after losing badly in the league round.”
The former Indian forward said the format at Rio will help India a lot. For the first time in Olympic history, quarter-finals would be played. “I feel it will favour India a lot. Only four out of 12 teams would bow out of the meet. India have a great chance to reach quarters. After that it would be anybody’s game. The team playing best on the given day would win and reach the gold medal match,” he said.
Ashok Kumar also lauded Indian defence manned by VR Raghunath. “Raghunath is an excellent defender. He has shown his class in last few tournaments.”
The legendary player had special praise for goal-keeper PR Sreejesh. “Sreejesh is world number one goal keeper today. He has bailed out India on numerous occasions. Had it not been Sreejesh, India’s performance graph would have been totally different,” he remarked.
When asked if he is still hopeful of Dhyanchand getting Bharat Ratna, the legendary hockey player’s son said, “Even after over 30 years of his death, stadiums, roads and squares are named after him. That shows how great player and person Dhyanchand was.”
“Last time his name was unanimously passed in Rajya Sabha. But...,” Ashok Kumar stopped midway, adjusted his India blazer and the two emblems and signed off.
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