Former captain Ajit Pal Singh derides Indian team's performance at Junior World Cup

Ajit-Pal-Singh

Former captain of the Indian hockey team, Ajit Pal Singh, has slammed the performance of the junior hockey team at the recently concluded FIH Junior World Cup. He expressed his total disappointment with the showing of the junior team and said that the country needed to produce results on a consistent basis.

“Their performance was very disappointing. I never imagined they would finish tenth. I was expecting them to be among the top four teams,” Ajit Pal said on Monday.

“They were pathetic in the entire tournament. They struggled in the matches against Canada and South Korea. We always conceded a goal in the beginning and then we panicked. That was the story throughout the tournament,” he added.

When asked, what he thought were the areas of improvement for the team, he said – “Despite having five to six senior players in the team, we could not do well. Our goalkeeping was poor. We need to do a lot of work in that area. Same is the case with defence. We gave a lot of open spaces to the opponents to come and attack. Missing chances to score goals is another area of concern. This has been the scenario for a long time.”

He also questioned the efficacy of bringing in foreign coaches.

“I don’t know what these coaches are doing. We have brought in all these foreign experts, physical trainers and scientific staff but the performance is still below par. Where have we reached?”

Ajit Pal was the captain when India won its only World Cup to date back in 1975.