Indian team’s Azlan Cup failure as a result of under-preparation: Hockey News
Indian men hockey team’s manager, Col. Balbir Singh, today, stated the poor stamina of the team as the reason for ending up sixth in the seven-nation Malaysian Invitational, Sultan Azlan Shah Cup that recently took place in Ipoh, this month.
According to what he stated in his report to Hockey India (HI), the team can just bear to give a power-packed play for 35 minutes, considering the shameful performance of the team in Malaysia. Despite the fact that the team was led by a powerful veteran,
Arjun Halappa, the team faced a miserable failure with a record-setting loss from New Zealand by 3-7 in the Malaysian tournament.
Balbir stated that it was the lack of fitness and consistency during the game that got India to face such a defeat at the event.
His report further included, "We played well against all the teams but only in the first half. We could not last the full game and conceded a number of goals in the second half due to fatigue and poor clearance. Fitness was a problem... players must be on
their toes from the start to the end."
This point was also supported by the team’s physical trainer, Dr Pradip Dutta, in the report regarding the team’s physical fitness and suggested that if the team needs to overpower the world’s top team, they need to work on improving their stamina to play.
Moreover, he raised the fact that in order to improve physically, a uninterrupted session of training camps is required with just short intervals.
Dutta said in his report, "The general fitness levels are not an issue. But when it comes to hockey-specific physical fitness, it is where the team is lacking. We need to improve hockey-specific physical fitness in order to cope with the physical and psychological
demands of modern-day hockey."
Considering the fact that the team had not undergone many training camps and sessions, the team’s coaches, Jugraj Singh, Clarence Lobo and the chief coach Harendra Singh, also complemented the fact that the team must have played some Tests and joined a few
camps before taking part in the Malaysian seven-nation.
Above all, this failure was all the more shameful due to the fact that India was the two-times title defender of the Azlan Cup of 2009 and 2010.
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