Tushar remains bullish

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The travails of the Indian men’s hockey team during their deplorable performance at the recent London Olympics have been done to death so much so that they aren’t worthy of a reiteration.

Finishing at the bottom of the standings when a much better showing was expected of them had their critics and fans alike pour scorn on them. Indeed it was gut-wrenching to watch them plumb the depths of despair sliding to defeats against such opponents such as Belgium and South Africa, leave alone powerhouses like the Netherlands and Germany.

Star forward Tushar Khandker who was a vital cog in the team that embarked on the Olympics sojourn was one of the few players to have emerged with his reputation unscathed.

Now in Chennai to take part in the Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament for BPCL, Tushar while admitting candidly to the fact that they failed horrendously in their endeavour to maximise their potential, sounds bullish about the team’s chances of revival in the forthcoming Champions Trophy which will be held in Australia from December 1 to 9.

“I will be the first person to put my hand up and say that we didn’t play as well as we could have. But this is not the time to brood over the past. We look forward to the new season with renewed hope,” said Tushar.

Reflecting on the vitriolic criticism that the Indian team received from certain sections of the media, the diffident Tushar chose to take the rough with the smooth and said nonchalantly, “The whole nation pinned a lot of hopes on us and expected that we would return home with a medal. Unfortunately we couldn’t fulfil their aspirations. People are well within their rights to criticise us and it’s only understandable that after a disaster of such epic proportions they vented their spleen,” added the forward before making a bold assertion that they would make their critics eat humble pie soon.

When asked to list out the reasons behind the team’s drastic fall from grace, Tushar emphasised categorically that they were found wanting in almost all facets of the game starting from the basics such as man-to-man marking, trapping and pushing.

“We have to go back to the drawing board and learn from the mistakes we made in London. We have two more months before the Champions Trophy to fine-tune the areas that we need to improve on,” he added.

Sharing his thoughts on BPCL’s patchy form in the ongoing Murugappa tournament, Tushar ascribed it to the astro-turf, which he felt was not fit to host an event of this stature, “The turf at the MRK Stadium is not cleaned properly resulting in it being slippery. It’s making life difficult for the players.

“Dribbling is particularly tough. That’s one of the reasons why a majority of the teams are resorting to long passes. The players also run the risk of getting injured. But I don’t want to make this sound as a ruse for our team’s inconsistent display,” he concluded.