Chandigarh:
Legendary Australian striker Jamie Dwyer feels Hockey India League (HIL) has played a “big part” in the resurgence of the game in India, a country which has a rich history of eight Olympic gold medals.
“The HIL has played a big part in the recent improvement of the Indian team. They (India) missed the Olympic berth in 2008 Beijing and had touched a low, but now they are getting better. The best I have seen them play in a long time was in Australia last year where they won the historic Test series,” the 35-year-old Dwyer, who is currently captaining Jaypee Punjab Warriors in HIL, told PTI here today.
Insisting that “consistency” was the biggest problem of the India team, Dwyer said things have now started to change.
“It was great for them to win the Asian Games (last year). I think it is a huge step for Indian hockey to beat teams like South Korea and Pakistan. They need to consistently beat those teams to compete with Belgium, Australia, Germany and Holland,” the Australian said about India’s recent performances.
Dwyer had words of praise for young midfielder Manpreet Singh.
“I think Manpreet has been the best player in India for over a year now. He is a quality player. He is a dangerous player in the midfield. He plays particularly good in HIL for Ranchi. I think he needs to play better when he plays overseas,” he said.
Talking about next year’s Rio Olympics, Dwyer feels it would be a tough contest but looking at their constant upward movement, one cannot rule out India’s chances in the quadrennial event.
“Every game you play here (in Olympics) is really hard. There is not much difference between the top team and the bottom team. It’s always very close,” he said.
“India have got a chance. I am not sure who their coach is going to be and what sort of style they are going to play now, which could interrupt the team a little bit. But I think they have got a great squad and some very good players.”
Meanwhile, Jaypee Punjab Warriors might have registered two wins and a draw from three games in the ongoing HIL so far, but Dwyer feels there is still lot of scope for improvement.
