Admitting that the Indian team will face a difficult task at the upcoming FIH World Hockey league (WHl) Round 3, skipper Sardar Singh said on Tuesday that he was confident of bagging one of three automatic World Cup berths up for grabs in the tournament.
The Indians will have their task cut out as they will be up against formidable Germany, New Zealand, and Ireland in Pool B. The job has been made even harder by the fact that two crucial players - Gurvinder Singh Chandi and Danish Kaneria - will be absent due to injury which could have a big impact on the teams attacking abilities.
But Sardar asserted that his boys will come out with flying colours in the June 13-23 tournament if they just do the basics right. "We have to be focused on our job. We will just play our usual game and go all out to win all the matches. We are taking our best team. If we give our best efforts, convert the penalty corners, do the counter-attacks and take our chances, then we will win," Sardar said ahead of the team's departure to Holland for the HWl. "Our chances are there but we need to play tough hockey. We need to concentrate, we shouldn't give away easy balls," Singh said.
"During our recent tour to Holland, we have played against their best club teams as well as the national side which helped us in working on our weaknesses," he added.
Star dragflicker Sandeep Singh and senior striker Shivendra Singh have made a return to the team for the first time after the london Olympics and Sardar felt that the experienced duo will prove valuable in a squad full of youngsters. "We have the best dragflicker in the world with us now. We have a couple of other penalty corner specialists also who are very good. We are hoping that it will give us an advantage during the penalty corners,' he said.
Indian Hockey's High Performance Director said India needs to put up a "confident and consistent" performance to secure a World Cup spot. "The men's competition is really very tough but the players should be confident about their own abilities. And if we can show that confidence in a consistent basis, there is no reason why we shouldn't qualify from here," Oltmans said. "I can assure you that we will fight our hearts out to be among the 3 top teams."
"Our focus should be to qualify directly either through World league Round 3 or Asia Cup," he insisted.
Oltmans, who also coached the Netherlands and Pakistan hockey teams, said the Rotterdam-bound Indian team is a fine mixture of youth and experience. "In Akashdeep Singh and Mandeep Singh, we have some promising youngsters in our forward line while Shivendra will lend experience to them," he said. "We also have best penalty corner specialists in the world in Sandeep (Singh), V R Raghunath and Rupinderpal Singh."
Oltmans was happy with Sandeep Singh and Shivendra Singh, who returned to the squad after a gap, and warned any player against taking his place for granted in the national team. "Since coming back Sandeep is eager to learn. His attitude is different. It always helps when you are not in the team. It tells you that you need to improve in every aspect of the game. He understood the message and worked really hard. The same is the case with Shivendra," he said.
Even though Oltmans is not concerned about the current fitness of Indian players, he rued the absence of a sports psychologist with the side. "I am not so concerned about the fitness of our players. We need to look at the mental approach of the players. We don't have sports psychologist yet but I hope we will get one in future."
India's chief coach Michael Nobbs also agreed with Oltmans that the competition in the upcoming event is tough. "The competition is pretty tough. All the teams will want to
qualify but we are absolutely keen and we will give it our best shot," he said. "The more we play European teams the better we will be. Our attack is good but we need to work more on our defence."
Meanwhile, the Indian women's team coach Neil Hawgood seemed realistic about his wards chances and admitted that he was not expecting dramatic results. "It's going to be really tough because you will be playing teams which are ranked 1,3,5,7 in the world," he said. "I am not expecting out of ordinary. If we manage to qualify it will be a bonus. I am expecting to find out the little things we have done have changed or not."
The Australian said the team was a young and inexperienced one and the HWl will provide them valuable experience of top class hockey. "This tournament will show them what top class, physical hockey is all about. Most of our players are from the team for junior World Cup which will take place after this."