FIRST ABOUT HOCKEY
India played exceptional hockey in Malaysia and came second in the tournament which had 4 teams playing in Olympics. There were seven teams playing in the Azlan Shah Tournament: India, Argentina, New Zeland, Pakistan, Canada, Belgium & Malaysia. New Zeland, Pakistan, Canada & Belgium have qualfied for the Olympics and these teams were not the top 2 teams in this tournament. So now the question is "are the teams who are playing in Olympics the best 12 teams in the world?"
What I think is that the 12 teams which have qualified for Olympics are not the best 12 teams in the world. Teams like Argentina & India should have qualified. Ok we got the chance and didnt qualify but teams like Belgium & Canada will never be able to compete against the odds of Australia , Netherlands or Spain.
The system of qualifying was so horrible that International Hockey Federation had to ask the world champion "Germany" to play the Qualifiers. They lost to Belgium in a Tournament and so they had to play the qualifier. Utter non sense. Same with India & Argentina. the performance of the Argetinian team in the past few years wasn't looked at and canada qualified based on some minutes of madness by Canada. Argentina qualified for the Champion's trophy which is going to happen in few weeks time and their performance in Azlan Shah Tournament was exceptional. Don't they deserve to play in the Olympics?
What should have happened is that the top six teams should have qualified directly to Olympics. So Australia, Pakistan, Germany, Netherlands, Spain and Korea should have made it directly to the olympics based on the performance since the past 2 years. Every Continent level tournament & world level tournament is rated in the International Hockey Federation. Good thing. And the next 12 teams from 7th to 18th rank should have played a mini world cup kind of thing. The top 6 teams qualify for the Olympics. As simple as that. no host country nothing of that shit. Play the tournament and qualify.
Now some might say "It is possible that Argentina & India could have come 7th or 8th in that tournament" Yes it is possible but they would be having more opportunities to defend their place. One bad match wouldn't allow they to not qualify.
Lets hope the IHF takes note of this mess and the best 12 teams of the world play the Olympics and the World Cup in future.
Ok all said and done... I saw some videos of Sachin Tendulkar online and thought of sharing them here... Enjoy...
PART 1
PART 2
PART 3
PART 4
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