Hockey
Indian legend Dhanraj Pillay highlights reasons behind India's early Hockey WC exit
Former India captain Dhanraj Pillay talks about reasons behind India's early exit from Hockey World Cup 2023.
The Indian hockey team
India's early exit from Hockey World Cup has started multiple debates around. There have been a lot of comments and theories coming up about this early exit.
Speaking on the shocking exit of India in a Twitter space former captain Dhanraj Pillay said," The exit came as a shock for everyone. In front of the home crowd, I don't know how it happened."
Indian skipper Harmanpreet had a stinker of Hockey World Cup as he converted just one penalty corner despite attempting so many. Talking about Harman's bad performance, he said,"I don't understand the point of having a drag flick camp two weeks before the World Cup. It looked like to me, Harmanpreet Singh was taking drag flicks with a different stance than his usual."
Hockey in India has gone through a lot of ups and downs in past decade. Odisha government invested in the game to revive it. India won the bronze medal in Tokyo 2020 Olympics but after World Cup debacle now, it seems India is going back.
Indian hockey suffered setbacks with years progressing. Lack of interest from investors and sustainability issues forced Hockey India to close HIL (franchise-based league of Hockey).
Talking about sponsors, Dhanraj Pillay said, "I don't understand why we look only for one sponsor? PHL and HIL both the leagues failed because the sponsors were unhappy. I remember there used to be time when Wills used to sponsor the Rangaswamy Cup but we couldn't keep them happy and they moved to cricket."
"There are so many ex-players who want to contribute. I will request current Hockey India officials to take the help of the former players," he added further.
"The federation has failed to market the players and game. We failed to capitalize on the medal of Tokyo Olympics. Although there were multiple problems as COVID-19 and other issues but we could have capitalized,"Dhanraj Pillay concluded about India's early exit of Hockey World Cup.
India will face Japan in the classification match of 9th-16th Ranking position at Rourkela.
