Australian hockey legend Ric Charlesworth feels India's below-par performance at the Asian Games was an aberration and despite the needless changing of coaches, the team has made significant gains in the last three-four years.
Charlesworth, a World Cup winner both as a player and coach, has been a vocal critic of Indian hockey, especially its governance. Fed up with the system, he could last only 10 months as technical director of Indian hockey almost a decade ago.
The chopping and changing of coaches is still a frequent phenomenon and Charlesworth doesn't like that but gave credit where it is due.
"Three-four years ago, I was not so optimistic. Now, I see a revolutionary change in the way the players think about their game. You have made two Champions Trophy final in the last two years and in the last one, India actually played better than Australia (before losing in shoot-out)," Charlesworth told PTI on Saturday.
"The Hockey India League changed things. The fact that Indians players were playing with international players on a regular basis helped them a lot. I remember when I was in India in 2008, Greg Chappell (then India cricket coach) said 'if India get their act together, they will have five best cricket teams in the world'. Likewise, you do have a lot of players in hockey and that change has started to occur," said the 66-year-old, who has also played first-class cricket for Western Australia.
So, what has caught Charlesworth's attention and what different are the players doing now compared to four years ago?
"And now you see the progress. If you look all round the field, the players are now more confident of themselves. They know their game and their rivals. They know they (players of other top teams) have two arms and legs like them and they are capable of beating them. Mentally they have become tougher, so all of that adds up to make a more reliable and consistent team."
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