Bhubaneswar: Indian men’s hockey team, skipper Manpreet Singh is confident of winning the tournament when they start their campaign in the FIH Series Finals here at the iconic Kalinga Stadium from Thursday. They have to emerge triumphant in the event keeping in mind that qualification for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is at stake.
“We are really confident of reaching the finals and winning the tournament. This is where the real fight starts for the Olympic qualification process and it’s really important for us to win in front of our home crowd,” the Indian skipper said Tuesday at the all teams’ captain press conference at the Kalinga Stadium.
The top two teams in the tournament will qualify for the Tokyo Olympic qualifiers which will be played this year later in November. The Indian men’s hockey team are the most successful team ever in the history of Olympics winning eight gold medals, the last of which came in the 1980 Moscow edition. However, after that the team went downhill with not even a top four finish.
“It’s going to be a tough because all the teams will be fighting for that top two spots. There are some teams here about who we don’t know much. It’s going to be an unpredictable competition,” added Manpreet.
However, the 28-year-old spoke highly about new coach Graham Reid stating the latter’s friendly nature with all the players has made it easier to adopt.
“The new coach is very honest and mixes with each and every player as a friend, which really helps us. He has this great quality of speaking individually with every player to sort out the problems. I am sure we will definitely succeed under him,” Manpreet quipped.
However, Manpreet still rued their loss in the 2018 Asian Games semifinals against Malaysia which cost them Tokyo Games qualification. “Had we won the tournament we wouldn’t have been sitting here and speaking with you. We would have been preparing ourselves for the Olympics,” Manpreet concluded.
