Roelant Oltmans said that the Indian team is on track to achieve its goal.
The Indian men’s hockey team has not had a great year so far regarding the results but coach Roelant Oltmans said that the team in improving and the failures of the past have not been a deterrent in making his quest to to make the national team world class.
“After I assumed charge as the Indian coach four years back, I have seen the team improving. The team also have faced failures, but it has not been a deterrent in my quest to make India a world class team,” he told PTI in an interview.
This year since the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, India have had some failures. They failed to qualify for Sultan Azlan Shah Cup final in Malaysia and then finished sixth at the Hockey World League (HWL) semi-finals in London. In between, India managed only one win in six matches at the Dusseldorf Invitational tournament.
This is in contrast to 2016 where India rose to number five in rankings, best since 2004, after winning their maiden silver medal at Champions Trophy. Oltmans said that the recent results did not take the Indian team off track to achieve its goal.
“When I joined in 2013, the very first thing that I told is that it takes six years for any team to become a consistent and world class team. This is the fourth year, and you know how many more years are left, but I hope in next one and-a- half years we are ready for World Cup Finals,” he said.
“We have a plan, we have a vision, and we have ideas about how to achieve them. I am here doing my job, so let me do my job and hope that it pays off,” he said.
India junior team also won a World Cup in 2016 and Oltmans said that the senior team already has nine players who have made it to the national team.
“We already have nine players who played junior world cup. That is quite a number. That means about 30 per cent of our players are coming from junior world cup squad.
“We also keep an eye on players – how they are improving in the development squad, which has been approved by the sports ministry. If somebody is good, then I have to look into him,” he added.
“We played Pakistan twice and beat as many times. We are happy about it, but it is not enough to beat one side in a tournament. It does not count. We need to beat other teams as well, and we didn’t.”
