In the first half of Monday, there was eager anticipation among the city’s hockey fraternity at the possibility of the Indian men’s team winning their first ever Commonwealth Games gold medal in the sport. 

In fact, the St Andrew’s Junior College hockey team, preparing for the U-17 Jawaharlal Nehru Cup, cut short their evening practice session in Bandra to let the boys head home to watch the 5pm gold medal match against Australia on TV and be inspired. However, India’s 0-7 drubbing was anything but inspirational and some of the city’s former India players are understandably disappointed.