'Indian hockey team has all qualities to finish on podium again'

Fri, 26 July 2024

17:40

Former coach Harendra Singh believes the Indian men's hockey team, led by the inspirational Harmanpreet Singh, has all the ingredients to win consecutive Olympic medals when it starts its campaign at the Paris Games against New Zealand here on Saturday.

But Harendra, who is now the head coach of the Indian women's team, has just one piece of advise for the men's side, "just play your normal game". "My advice to them would be just play your normal game. India has all the qualities to finish on the podium. I am not predicting the colour of the medal but they can win a medal for sure. This team has everything," Harendra told PTI Bhasha.

"The team has a good forward line, great midfielders and of course the wall of Indian hockey PR Sreejesh, a cool captain like Harmanpreet Singh.

"Craig (Fulton) is a great coach. He knows what it needs to be a champion team. He knows how to deal with crunch situations. He has good experience of European and Indian style of hockey," added the former coach of USA men's team.

Harendra has served in various coaching and managerial capacities for senior and junior national teams, across prestigious events like the 2000 Sydney Olympics, 2005 men's Junior World Cup, 2006 men's World Cup, 2006 Asian Games, 2009 men's Asia Cup, and 2010 men's World Cup. He took over the head coach's position of the national men's junior team in 2014 and then guided India to the junior World Cup title two years later in Lucknow.

Harmanpreet was part of that junior World Cup-winning team and Harendra had predicted back then that the dragflicker will scale greater heights in his career.

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