India field hockey coach Joaquim Carvalho resigned yesterday after the eight-time Olympic champions failed to qualify for the Beijing Games.
India crashed to a 2-0 defeat to Great Britain in the final of the qualifying tournament in Santiago, Chile, on Sunday night, ending a proud record of having played in every Olympics since 1928.
"When I took over 11 months ago, I had said I would resign if I cannot deliver results," Carvalho told Indian media in Santiago. "So now I am keeping my word. I am as disappointed and hurt as any other Indian hockey fan."
Indian Hockey Confederation (IHC) vice-president Narendra Batra also resigned, hoping to put pressure on the entire IHC administration, led by Kunwar Pratap Gill, to step down.
"I am ashamed because all of us have failed," Batra said. "This is the lowest point in Indian hockey and we in the federation must take the blame for it."
There was, however, no reaction from Gill, the former "supercop" credited with wiping out Sikh militancy in Punjab in the 1980s.
Batra was, however, not convinced that any attempt would be made to overhaul the sport's administration.
"Is anyone really concerned?" he said. "The sports ministry has already demoted hockey as a priority sport although it remains our national sport."
"Gill and the others will lie low for a few days and the debacle will be forgotten soon. We will be back to square one," Batra said.
Signs that India was headed for a major fall were evident over the last decade.
Since winning the last of their eight Olympic golds at the Western-boycotted Moscow Games in 1980, India claimed just one major title when Dhanraj Pillay's men took the Asian Games gold in Bangkok in 1998.
India finished seventh in the last two Olympics and were forced to qualify for Beijing after failing to win an Asian Games medal for the first time at Doha in December 2006.
Carvalho, however, dismissed fears that Indian hockey would not recover from the latest defeat in a country where cricket rules.
"Failure to qualify for the Olympics is not the end of the road," the outgoing coach said.
"But we must start from scratch. We must retain the core team and perhaps even induct a few junior players. Some of the seniors will have to think hard about their future in international hockey," Carvalho said.
Former international Viren Rasquinha, who retired earlier this year to pursue management studies, said the exit from the Olympics was "one hell of a blow."
"It was almost taken for granted that we will be part of the Olympics," he said.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
RSS