Defending champion Carvalho

“In the last match, the boys were under tremendous pressure as they had no option but to win,” says Somaiya, who led the country at the Seoul Olympics. “The referees also added to the pressure.”

Carvalho said nothing different. “When you concede early goals, you are bound to be under pressure. The harsh punishment meted out to us through four yellow cards, two each in the two matches against Britain, reduced us to 10 men for 25 minutes each. That took the wind out of the players. We conceded goals during that period,” he said.

“I’m not making any excuses, but the biased umpiring was clearly evident. The English players were hardly pulled up for fouls on our players while our boys were warned at the drop of a hat. That smacked of pure injustice and made the Indian players overcautious, making them think twice before making a tackle, while giving the English players more freedom to break free and score.”

‘Selection was fine’

When asked if the team selection was inappropriate and some of the seniors left behind could have anchored the team better, Somaiya shot back: “They were the same seniors who played in the World Cup in 2006 where we finished 11th and they were the same when he finished fifth at the Doha Asian Games. That was the first time we had sunk so deep at an Asian Games, where we used to finish in the top-three spot. In the present set-up, they (seniors) do not fit the style of play. We didn’t qualify because of our poor performances in the earlier tournaments.” And, lending further support the present team, he said: “When India won the Asia Cup at Chennai, we had most of the players from the present team.”

Most of the players in the side had at least five years of international exposure and it was quite balanced with seniors such as Dilip Tirkey, William Xalco, Ignace Tirkey and Bimal Lakra, pointed out Somaiya.

When asked why the most outstanding player of the Premier Hockey League (PHL) was dropped, he replied sarcastically: “There is a letter with the IHF which states that Sandeep Singh was called to the camp, but he refused to come due to some ailment. I am not sure whether it was cholera.”

Somaiya also defended India’s preperation for the tournament. “We had a 10-month plan. It started with Azlan Shah, where we played against Argentina and New Zealand and the tournament in Boom (Belgium) where we encountered Britain, Argentina, then the Asia Cup where we played teams such as Pakistan, China, South Korea, Japan and Malaysia. There was also a series in Belgium and two weeks of training in Perth where we played a series against Western Australia.”

Carvalho then decided to sum it up for hockey fans, saying: “We can only climb from here. We can’t go lower. This is a very talented and promising young bunch. They played their hearts out and cannot be blamed for the nation missing the Olympic bus. It took just one match to put us out.”