Thaindian News

New Delhi, Aug 14 (IANS) India’s chief hockey coach Michael Nobbs Tuesday vowed to carry on even as he prepares a stinging report on the eight-time Olympic champions worst ever finish in the Olympics at the 2012 London Games.

“I come from a country where we don’t take these things lightly. Success is defined from getting up the last time you were knocked down and that is what we are going to do. We have talent in this country, we just got to make sure the right talent is on the field, performing for the right reason at the right time,” Nobbs told IANS here.

India finished last in the London Olympics, failing to win a single match.

Hockey India (HI) secretary general Narinder Batra also said the federation is awaiting report from Nobbs before taking corrective measures.

“We are waiting a full report from the coach and the captain. Then only we can take some actions,” Batra told IANS.

Nobbs said he has already started working on the report.

“I have already started with the detailed analysis on team’s performance. It will be a thorough review. As of now, it would be difficult to say what went wrong. Let me come up with a report and we will let everyone know very quickly. We will fix this,” Nobbs said.

Though Nobbs was at a loss for words to explain the reason for the dismal show, he said the team needed to work a lot on trapping the ball.

“Trapping is an interesting thing to analyse. I have gone and looked backed at trapping of some of the past Indian teams. The trapping has been a huge problem. The top teams in the world, like Germany and Holland, missed four traps in the Olympics final and we obviously missed a lot more than that. We have to improve a lot in this area.”

India looked a potent unit in the lead up to the Olympics and expectations for a good show in London soared when they won the qualifying tournament here.

Nobbs maintained he was realistic about the team’s chances.

“I was realistic all the way. But we should have played a lot better than what we did. We played well through out the year. Now we have to find out what happened there was an aberration or something else.”

Asked about the side’s inability to convert penalty corners, Nobbs said :”I don’t know what went wrong there. Before the Olympics it was 80 percent. We have to find a solution on what went wrong.”

Looking ahead at the Champions Trophy in three months time, Nobbs said there were positives to look at from the forgettable outing at the Summer Games.

“There were quite a few positives in London. I think we have got the world’s best player (Sardar Singh) in our team. The players looked hundred percent fit.”

On India’s 12th position in the tournament, Nobbs said: “If you don’t hit the ball in the net, then this is what happens.”