As the Commonwealth Games kick off, Viren Rasquinha tells mid-day the Indian hockey team is good enough to reach the last stage
Viren Rasquinha
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Indian hockey skipper Manpreet Singh has said his team will be going for gold at the XXI Commonwealth Games that kicked off in Gold Coast, Australia, yesterday. But there's at least one strong contrasting view back home. The Indian team has won consecutive silver medals at the last two editions of the CWG, at New Delhi 2010 and Glasgow 2014, losing to Australia on both counts, and former India captain Viren Rasquinha feels the Indians will complete a hat-trick of silver medals.
Former India captain Viren Rasquinha felt the competition in the hockey event at the Gold Coast CWGâu00c2u0080u00c2u0088isn't great. "Besides India, there are only a couple of other good teams at this CWG, like England and maybe Pakistan but the team to beat or should I say the team that's toughest to beat, is Australia, and I feel India will struggle against them again," Rasquinha, 37, told mid-day yesterday.
The conviction in Rasquinha's assessment is not surprising given the Indians were beaten comprehensively by the Aussies in the last two finals — 0-8 in Delhi and 0-4 in Glasgow.
"The Australians should win gold because they are simply at a much higher level [than the Indians]. However, let's not forget that the Indians have to reach the final first, and I will be very surprised if they don't because in the last few years the government has put in a lot of money into the game. The current Indian hockey set-up has good foreign coaches, trainers and the boys have had a lot of international exposure through bilateral series and foreign tournaments. So, there is no excuse for them to fare badly now," said Rasquinha, a member of India's 2001 Junior Hockey World Cup-winning team in Hobart.
As far as the women's team goes, Rasquinha felt that they have done well to rise in the Asian circuit in the recent past but struggle given their lean physique when compared to that of the tough English and Australian women. "Winning the Asia Cup last year was a great achievement for our women's team because they beat teams like Japan, China and Korea who were all ranked above them. They are at par with some of the best teams when it comes to skill, but they are lacking in strength and that could be a major deterrent in big matches," he signed off.
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