Former India men's hockey head coach Roelant Oltmans has blamed the lack of tactical awareness and a non-existent club culture for India's early exit in the ongoing edition of the FIH Men's World Cup.
India lost the crossover match to New Zealand and failed to make the quarter-finals after going down 4-5 in sudden death. India's current head coach Graham Reid had also voiced concern about the lack of club culture after the Hockey India League (HIL) became defunct in 2017.
"There is no club culture in India, that is for sure. And the players need to continue playing games, that this team is lacking," Oltmans, who was at the helm of affairs of the Indian team from 2015 to 2017, told PTI in an interview.
"These Indians are fantastic hockey players, no doubt about that. But you need to know what to do at which moment of the game. If all of a sudden, you are 11 against 10, what are you going to do?" added the Dutchman, who also served as the High Performance Director of Indian hockey from 2013 to 2015.
India were unable to take advantage of the circumstances after New Zealand were reduced to 10 men in the crossover match.
After New Zealand made it 3-3 in the fourth quarter, Nick Ross received a yellow card in the 53rd minute and was suspended for five minutes. New Zealand defended doggedly to take the match into penalty shootout and then sudden death.
"India had five minutes before the end of the match when a New Zealand player was out. What were India doing at such a moment? You need to play tactical games, execute them properly," Oltmans, who was India head coach during the 2016 Rio Olympics, said.
"The Germans scored two goals in three minutes (against England), that is the difference, that is something India still need to work on."
Oltmans was surprised that India did not have a mental-conditioning coach. The Dutchman said that a psychologist was with the team at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Centre in Bengaluru when he was at the helm.
"Absolutely, it (having a mental-conditioning coach) makes a difference. When I was the head coach prior to the (Rio) Olympics, I had a psychologist in my staff. It is more or less the same as having a mental-conditioning coach.
"For the physical part of the game, we have physical training, for tactical part of the game, we have tactical training, for skill training we have drag-flick trainers. But the mental aspect made a major difference and there we don't have a serious trainer. That is strange," said Oltmans.