Indians hockey fans have been caught in the state of disappointment after Malaysia knocked out the former world champions and Commonwealth Games silver medallists in the semi final of the 16th Asian Games.
Indian hockey team thwarted the hockey fans by failing to get the direct ticket to 2012 London Olympics as winner team of Asiad will automatically qualify for the London Games.
The semi-final win sent Malaysia in the historic final of 16th Asian Games and gave new life to hockey in Malaysia. It is worth mentioning here that India had defeated Malaysia in last ten Asian tournaments.
Malaysian legend drag flicker, Amin Rahim made the victory possible for his squad. His drag flicks created new history for the emerging nation, which qualified for the first time for Asian Games since 1958.
Indian hockey team, which had failed to qualify for Beijing Olympics in 2008 for the first time in 80 years after slipping from the qualifying round, again missed a golden chance to earn direct ticket to 2012 London Olympics. Once again eight-time Olympic
gold medallist India will have to pass over the crucial qualifying round to get a berth in the upcoming Olympics.
Jose Brasa the Indian Coach lamenting over the situation said, “This is a big disaster because we came here to acquire the title of Asiad. We dominated the game but
Malaysia successfully converted three penalty corners and won the game.”
It is pertinent to mention here that the contract of Indian coach, Jose Brasa is going to end after the tournament and his desire to win the last event was dashed by Malaysian short corner specialist, Rahim.
On the other hand Indian men’s hockey national coach, Harendra Singh tendered his resignation from his post after his team was knocked out of Asian Games by 15th ranked team in the world, Malaysia.
Harendra Singh dispatched an e-mail to Secretary of Hockey India, Narinder Batra saying that he accepted the moral responsibility for embarrassing failure in the 16th Asian Games and tendered his resignation as a national coach of the team.
Harendra wrote, “Keeping in view the dismal performance of the men’s hockey team in the semi-final game against
Malaysia, I present my resignation as the national coach with immediate effect.”
However, Hockey India Secretary, Narinder Batra asked the national coach Harendra Singh to continue his affiliation with the team and try to win the third-place match against South Korea. He maintained that the issues of resignation would be settled after
the tournament.
Skipper of Indian squad, Rajpal Singh, who was quite hopeful for winning the gold medal in Asiad, said that they had obtained four penalty corners but failed to avail all the chances.
Rajpal Singh said that the bad-luck intensified when legend drag flicker of India, Sandeep Singh received an injury in the second half of the match. He further said that it was not the day for India. However, he expressed hope that they would win bronze
in the event.
India is scheduled to play against South Korea for third place match on 25 November at Aoti Hockey Centre in Guangzhou, China.
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