IOA chief Batra terms Indian men's hockey team's recent results "unacceptable", asks HI to explain
The Hindu
The team could not defend the Asian Champions Trophy title in December last year and then lost to lower-ranked France in a FIH Pro League match in South Africa last week.
IOA President Narinder Batra, who also heads the International Hockey Federation, on Tuesday termed the Indian men's hockey team's performance in recent tournaments as "unacceptable" and asked the national federation to explain the reasons behind it.
In a strongly-worded communication to Hockey India (HI) President Gyanendro Ningombam, Batra said he has serious concerns about the team's performance after the historic bronze in Tokyo Olympics last year.
He also indicated that the team was being mismanaged but did not specify how.
Unlike most of the Olympic-bound athletes, who opt to train abroad before the big event, boxer Amit Panghal prefers training in home conditions prior to Paris 2024. A former World championships silver medallist and a World No. 1, Panghal won the 51kg quota place in the only chance he got. He wants to follow his own plans to script success in Paris.
The other men’s semifinal Friday is Norway’s Casper Ruud, twice the runner-up in Paris — to Rafael Nadal in 2022 and to Novak Djokovic in 2023 — against Germany’s Alexander Zverev, a finalist at the 2020 U.S. Open, an Olympic gold medalist and into the final four at Roland Garros for the fourth consecutive year.