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Trials and Tribulations: India's Performance at Fintro World Hockey League Semifinals

India finished fourth in Fintro World Hockey Semifinals League today after going 5-1 down to Great Britain today. Two days ago, they dispalyed good game plan but lost 4-0 to Belgium. A neutral observer could perceive a fourth place finish as a good one, particular for a young developing team but I for one cannot concur with the same. European Hockey is gold-standard and the way teams such as Great Britain, Poland, Ireland and Belgium played in this present tournament is an eye-opener. These teams as compared to India and Pakistan have improved by leaps and bounds and these two Asian Giants are still contained with semifinal, fifth place or a even a decent finish against a good European side. And I haven't even started with Australia, Netherlands and Germany....they are out of reach of at least Indian Team. Indian Men's Team IS NOT going to beat these sides, leave alone winning any Olympics or World event in next 10-15 years. The best they could come up with is a test series win against Malaysia or South Korea.

Even during the darkest years of our Hockey, i.e., 2004-2010, we managed to score a number of penalty corners and managed to capitalise on plenty of them but now, the D-penetration has receded alarmingly. Jasjeet Singh and Rupinder Singh are two makeshift penalty corner specialist in current Indian line-up but since they are make-shift, they perform likewise......pathetic, in other words. The wrong treatment that led to the ultimate sackings of Gaganajeet Singh and Sandeep Singh, two world class drag-flickers, would certainly come back to haunt the Indian team's fate in many more years to come.

Our Women's team is at least showing a fight in every match. The way they conjured hard fought wins against Japan and Italy, two very good teams, speaks of their strong character. Rani Rampal has emerged as one of the best players in the world and we surely are going to see a lot of her in next five years.......‪#‎EvesinRise‬........‪#‎AdamsinPits‬........‪#‎IndianHockeyinShambles‬

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