Indian hockey reaches unprecedented heights
The Indian colts lifted the Junior World Cup title after a long gap of 15 years on their home turf in Lucknow.
New Delhi: A few disappointments aside, it was all about Indian hockey’s phenomenal rise in stature, both on and off the field, in 2016 with a historic silver medal in the Champions Trophy and Junior World Cup title after a hiatus of 15 years being the biggest achievements.
If the Champions Trophy silver, gold in Asian Champions Trophy and Junior World Cup title were the high points on the turf, former Hockey India chief Narinder Batra’s election to the post of International Hockey Federation president was the talking point off the pitch in the year gone by. Batra was unanimously elected to the FIH president’s post in November this year, thus becoming the first Indian and Asian to head the world body since its inception.
This was an Olympic year and much was expected from India and the eight-time Olympic champions did achieve success on the pitch barring a few failures. But at the fag end of the year, the Indian colts lifted the Junior World Cup title after a long gap of 15 years on their home turf in Lucknow. In the Champions Trophy in London, the Indians played out of their skins to reach the title clash, where they probably played their best match of not only the year against a very strong Australian outfit only to end on the losing side.
Despite the loss, the Indian team created history — a Champions Trophy silver as they had never gone beyond the bronze earlier. Then came the event, which the hockey crazy fans of the country were looking forward to, the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. With dip in form, Sardar was removed as captain and in his place ace goalkeeper Sreejesh P.R. was handed over the arm-band for Rio Olympics.
The Indians did impress in the league stages and expectedly qualified for the quarter-finals in Rio where they lost 1-3 against a resurgent Belgium despite taking the initial lead. The India women too created their own bit of history in 2016 by qualifying for the Olympics after a gap of 36 years. But their campaign turned out to be even more disappointing as they finished last in the 12-team competition having managed to draw just one game (2-2 against Japan).
The Indian men’s next assignment was the Asian Champions Trophy in Kuantan, Malaysia, where they defeated arch-rivals Pakistan 3-2 in the final to lift the trophy for a second time. The burden of captaincy gone, Sardar sparkled in Kuantan, while Rupinder Pal Singh finally stamped his authority as a defender as well as penalty corner specialist with 11 goals in the tournament.
It was then left to the junior men’s team to provide a resounding and perfect send-off to the year and the colts didn’t disappoint. The hosts produced a commanding performance from the word go to reclaim the Junior World Cup title by beating Belgium 2-1 in the final.