Former captain Sardar Singh says he regrets not winning an Olympic medal for the country. Due to the postponement of Tokyo Summer Games, he says that the country has a chance of winning a medal under Manpreet Singh.
Sardar Singh has played 314 matches, however, failed to get one Olympic medal for the country. “My journey in hockey has been rather satisfying because I was part of that era which saw a resurgence. We came a long way from finishing last at the London Olympics in 2012 to being ranked No.6 in the world when I hung up my boots in 2018,” he says.
Reminiscing his iconic past matches he said, my career that spanned over a decade, there have been some very memorable matches. Leading the Indian team to the 2014 Asian Games Gold, the first in 16 years, will always be on top of that list not just because it was historic and beating Pakistan in a final is always an icing on the cake.”
Praising and highlighting the current team he says that, “Now, the current team is poised at no.4 which should definitely bring a lot of confidence to this team in the lead up to their Tokyo Olympic campaign.”
He has shown a lot of confidence in the new talent and said that this is a critical time for the team members and they can use this postponement to their advantage and can level up their game. Sardar said, “They definitely have a realistic chance in Tokyo.” He also praised the team for their exceptional performance in FIH Hockey Pro League earlier this year.
Sardar advised that this time can be used to build and strengthen new talent. “They have the time to build on the new talent that is available. Some of the youngsters like Rajkumar, Dilpreet, Vivek Sagar, Gursahib have shown great promise and trying them in big-match scenarios like the Pro League was a good decision by chief coach Graham Reid.” Sardar said in a recent interview.
