Rio Olympics 2016: Ex-fullback Vineet Kumar backs India to make podium finish

Vineet Kumar was part of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics Indian team 

He was considered one of the lethal penalty corner hitters in his heydays. The burly sight of Vineet Kumar Sharma pounding home those power-packed short corner hits into the opposition citadel would bring joy on the faces of the hockey fans in the late seventies and eighties.

Vineet clearly packed a punch when it came to unleashing those penalty corners – days when drag-flicks were not in vogue. “In our time, we used to rely on penalty corner hits along the carpet as drag-flicks did not exist in those days.

“Yes, if we had drag-flicks in our playing days, I could have been even more deadly with my penalty corners,” says Vineet who had made his senior international debut in an international tourney in Perth, Australia in 1979.

The 57-year-old former star fullback was part of the New Delhi 1982 and 1986 Seoul Asian Games teams besides featuring in the 1982 and 1986 World Cups held in Bombay and London. Of course, his biggest career high was playing in the 1984 Los Angeles team – a side considered one of the best to play in the Olympics in the post-independence era.

“There is no doubt that we had a great team for the 1984 Olympics. It all boils down to luck as we could not beat Germany in our must-win game and failed to make the semifinals. There is a lot of tension in such crunch situations – even a player like Zafar Iqbal missed a scoring opportunity in front of an open goal,” he asserts.

Vineet was a star performer in India’s fifth place finish at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics – he was the joint top-scorer with Merwyn Fernandes – both scoring six goals each. The classy fullback also scored in crucial games against Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands, a game India won 5-2 to take the fifth spot.

“I was happy to have scored when the team needed it in our crunch games. We had the team to win a medal but the draw against Germany nullified our medal aspirations,” quips the man, who has high expectations from the current national team.

“We have every reason to be optimistic about a medal in the Rio Olympics. It is after a long time hockey fans genuinely believe this Indian team can bag a medal.”

Vineet made more than 150 international appearances and scored about 65 international goals with the curtains coming down on his international career at the 1987 Indira Gandhi Gold Cup Hockey Tournament.