Former Indian coach, Vasudevan Baskaran says, “If I was there (as coach) the story would have been different.” Baskaran was in fact the captain of the 1980 Gold medal winning Hockey team.

“The first game of any competition is very important,” says the former Indian coach. Though, one has to agree that the Indian team came up with a heartening performance against one of the top hockey sides, Netherlands. They lost narrowly with the score reading 3-2. Baskaran also says that the Indian team played well in the first match, though they lost. But, after which the team went downhill - losing to every other opponent. “The team did not have alternate B and C plans,” added the former coach.

When asked to choose a single player who stood out for India, Baskaran does not want to choose any one and in fact says, “The entire team was inconsistent.” But added that there were two players who gave it their all in the Olympics, Raghunath and Sreejesh. The Indian team lacked the much-needed fire power while representing the nation in such a prestigious event. Other teams would come up with their A game during the competition, but India was no where close to the other competitors who were eager for a medal. Devesh Chauhan says, “The Indian players are just satisfied being an Olympian, not an Olympic medalist.

Hockey India and Indian Hockey Federation also needs to take some blame for the failure of the Indian team during the Olympics. Chauhan directly puts his finger across to the authorities for not putting a strong Olympic squad. He says, “The best team was not selected for the Olympics.” Indeed, it is true when one realises that one of our best players Arjun Halappa did not travel to London with the Olympic team. Along with Hallapa, there were other players too, like Rajpal Singh, who did not make it to the squad, in spite of being capable players.