Former captain V. Baskaran on Thursday said India played the best brand of hockey at the Paris 2024 Olympics while earning a bronze medal, commenting it was better than winning gold.
India defeated Spain 2-1 to win back-to-back bronze medals in the Olympics.
“This is the best performance. We might have missed out on silver or gold, but it happens. India played the best hockey,” Baskaran told PTI on the sidelines of a Madras Week event.
“I would rate this team’s performance better than gold. If there is a platinum medal, the team deserves it. India did well right from the opening game and played consistent hockey.”
Baskaran, who led India to an Olympic gold in the 1980 Moscow Games, was impressed at how the side handled pressure situations throughout the Paris showpiece.
“We even played a match (against Great Britain) with 10 players. So, we should definitely give credit to the team and the management for tackling everything perfectly,” he added.
Baskaran also hailed the defensive tactics of head coach Craig Fulton. “He (Fulton) has been successful in commanding the boys for the last two years. His defensive system has been good. It looks more like an attack,” he said.
“But, more than the coach, the boys deserve the credit. The coach chalks out the plan, while the execution has to be done by the players,” he added.
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Veteran Indian goalkeeper PR Sreejesh retired after the Olympics, and he has taken up the head coach role of the India U-21 team. Baskaran exuded confidence that India can fill that void.
“Somebody has to retire someday, and somebody has to fill in. After MS Dhoni retired, didn’t India win the World Cup?” he asked.
“So, it’s futile to ponder over retirement in sports, but we should think about the future. We should think how to nurture them (young players), as no one is unbeatable in sports,” he added.
Baskaran said India should line-up another goalkeeper before the 2026 World Cup in the Netherlands.
“There are quite a few (goalkeepers) lined up, and their focus should be the World Cup in 2026. Everything will change after this World Cup because expectations will be high from this team,” he offered.
“Regardless of whether Sreejesh or Harmanpreet (Singh) is there or not, the Indian team has to continue playing, and we need to process it in a big way, which does take time in hockey.
“There will be lots of ups and downs in the next year to prepare the Indian team. We need to come up with something good for the next four years.”
Commenting on the areas that need improvement, Baskaran asked for more attacking intent from the forwards.
“We must focus on consistent play, while our forwards need to step up more since we cannot always rely on penalty corners. We need to have more go at shooting for the goal; thus we need to create more scoring chances,” he said.
