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ROURKELA: “The really great teams in the world make their decisions on the pitch.” Coach Graham Reid was trying to make a point that he wants Indian players to soak responsibility and live by it each time they get onto the pitch at the ongoing Men’s Hockey World Cup.
It definitely reflects in the new-found confidence of skipper Harmanpreet Singh, though he wasn’t able to replicate that on the field against Spain on Friday in a missed stroke and a couple of harmless drag-flicks.
The best part was it didn’t put off the team, even if there seemed an attempt to answer criticism about the understrength drag-flick department, after Jugraj Singh was only picked as a reserve for the World Cup.
But that part of India’s World Cup campaign is sealed. There are 18 men on the job who, says Reid, need to take split-second decisions and be accountable for those if India wants to go deeper into the tournament.
“When I talk about mindset, one of the things we have really been working on is these guys making decisions themselves,” said Reid, and reiterated. “The really great teams in the world make their decisions on the pitch.”
Reid, who joined India as coach after 2019 and became the first man at the helm since 1980 to take the Indian team to the Olympic podium, then used an analogy to explain, which also put his role as a coach in perspective.
“I think that’s what ends up happening with me as a coach. It’s like putting your kids out and letting them run, letting them go. They will make their mistakes and we will try and fix them up later (as parents). But they also need to take responsibility and we talk about that a lot,” said the 58-year-old Australian.
“To win a World Cup, you need everyone playing at the highest level. Yes, you can have one or two players having a bad game here and there. The objective is to have as many people as you can playing well. We need to bring that into the next game (against England).”
It definitely reflects in the new-found confidence of skipper Harmanpreet Singh, though he wasn’t able to replicate that on the field against Spain on Friday in a missed stroke and a couple of harmless drag-flicks.
The best part was it didn’t put off the team, even if there seemed an attempt to answer criticism about the understrength drag-flick department, after Jugraj Singh was only picked as a reserve for the World Cup.
But that part of India’s World Cup campaign is sealed. There are 18 men on the job who, says Reid, need to take split-second decisions and be accountable for those if India wants to go deeper into the tournament.
“When I talk about mindset, one of the things we have really been working on is these guys making decisions themselves,” said Reid, and reiterated. “The really great teams in the world make their decisions on the pitch.”
Reid, who joined India as coach after 2019 and became the first man at the helm since 1980 to take the Indian team to the Olympic podium, then used an analogy to explain, which also put his role as a coach in perspective.
“I think that’s what ends up happening with me as a coach. It’s like putting your kids out and letting them run, letting them go. They will make their mistakes and we will try and fix them up later (as parents). But they also need to take responsibility and we talk about that a lot,” said the 58-year-old Australian.
“To win a World Cup, you need everyone playing at the highest level. Yes, you can have one or two players having a bad game here and there. The objective is to have as many people as you can playing well. We need to bring that into the next game (against England).”
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