23 September 2016, Bangalore: With a little less than three months to go for the Uttar Pradesh FIH Junior Men World Cup to be held in Lucknow from 8 – 18 December 2016, the Indian Junior Men’s Hockey Team Coach Harendra Singh asserts that this team is the fittest bunch he has seen in over a decade. “We are in the final stages of our preparations and I can confidently say that we are on the right track. I have coached three junior World Cup teams and I can say that this team is the fittest and also mentally very tough,” stated Harendra Singh today ahead of the team’s departure to Perth, Australia where they will represent India for the first time in the Australian Hockey League (AHL).
According to Harendra Singh, the exposure at the AHL will help them assess where the team stands ahead of the World Cup and also give them enough time to fine tune in the areas they are lacking. “In the AHL, we are in Pool B which has Western Australia and they are a very strong team. We also play Tasmania who will be looking at using AHL as a platform to prove their might. Playing against these teams will show us where we stand and whether we are lacking in any areas. Malaysia and New Zealand is also playing in the AHL so I see this as a very important tournament in the lead up to the World Cup. We will have Director High Performance and Indian Men Hockey Team Chief Coach Roelant Oltmans traveling with us and we will closely monitor every player and his performance here,” Harendra Singh said.
After AHL, the team will play a 4-Nations Hockey Tournament in Valencia, Spain and Harendra Singh feels this will be the real test for the players who will be pitted against some of the best European teams. “From my assessment of watching these players over the past two-and-a-half years I feel this team has great capacity to beat the best teams in the world. We have used some rigorous training methods over the past two-and-a-half years and have emphasized on match preparations not just tactically and technically but also mentally. In Valencia we will get to see how the players cope with the pressure of playing the European teams,” he added.
Moving forward, Harendra Singh is confident that post the World Cup some of these junior players will push to earn a spot in the senior team, thus increasing the competition and also will help create the next pool of players. “I feel we are in the best phase of hockey in India. Both senior men’s and junior men’s teams have shown great potential. Post the World Cup in December, I feel there will be a handful of players who will be pushing for a spot in the senior team and the seniors will have to really show their worth to hold their current spot. I think this will ensure healthy competition in the future and there are already four players from the junior squad that have played in the senior team including Harmanpreet Singh, Mandeep Singh, Harjeet Singh and Vikas Dahiya,” Singh signed off on a positive note.
