At the July Olympics in Paris, India will be represented by 16 competitors less. The women's ice hockey team qualified for Tokyo 2020 and Rio 2016 but was not selected. However, this story is now closed. As upsetting and painful as it is, we must move forward to prevent girls from experiencing the same tragedy in Los Angeles in 2028. Finding players who will be free agents in 2028 will be the first step in that direction. Speaking from Hiroshima, where the corporate team is training, former India coach Neil Hawgood, who led the women's team to their first Olympic qualification in 36 years at Rio 2016, said: “Now they should draw a line behind the team and start a new one. a project involving the players of the national junior team that you will see playing in 2028.
" The pro league must contribute to their development. Instead of recommending that a new team be formed, I suggest that future players be introduced to senior hockey. India will compete in the Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and World Cup in 2026, all major events. While there are concerns about the CWG, the Asian Games should be taken very seriously as a gold medal in Nagoya guarantees a golden ticket to Los Angeles. Moreover, it will ease the burden of qualifying for the Olympics, which turned out to be a disastrous event in Ranchi.
As stated by Hawgood, India should start using the professional league as an exposure and experimental tournament, as most elite teams do, to achieve this goal of developing a strong bench strength that will allow the team to replace a star player in case of injury. "There won't be any significant competition anytime soon.
At this point, our next group should be ready, consisting of a mix of juniors and seniors, and should be able to play all the way to LA and not just another year or two simply." India captain Pritam Rani Siwach said from Sonipat: "We should rebuild the core group and try to make two groups that can prepare together." Siwach is absolutely right. Let's take the Netherlands as an example. They often field both their youth team and their B team to compete in elite Pro League matches.
Similar to the IPL effect, even though they may lose these games, they will still gain invaluable experience that will make them ready, confident and fearless when they step up to the next level and face the rest of the world. Siwach, who was a member of the only Indian team (men or women) to win a gold medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, has long criticized the team's small core group and the absence of fresh blood that would improve bench strength beyond the core group.
