Blaming India's back-to-back defeats against Australia and Spain in the hockey World Cup on flawed selection process,former Olympians on Friday demanded ouster of non-performers from the team and a complete overhaul of the system. India began their ongoing World Cup campaign on a positive note,outclassing Pakistan 4-1 but wore a sorry look against Australia and Spain,who thrashed them with identical 5-2 scoreline in their next two outings. The defeats have virtually dashed India's semifinal hopes and former Olympians are not even hopeful of a top-six finish. A member of India's 1975 World Cup winning side,Aslam Sher Khan feels the selection committee must own the responsibility of the team's shoddy performance in the last two encounters. "After the win against Pakistan,everybody had hopes from the team. Everybody felt that the boys have developed fighting spirit but it was not. The team is the same as it was before. We should not keep high hopes from it," Aslam said. "If we have to revive Indian hockey. We have to set up an institution for the game as it was before. There is no set up for hockey in the country and we hardly have any knowledge from where these players have come," he said. He was also very critical of veteran striker Deepak Thakur's performance. "I don't know why Deepak is in the World Cup squad. He is not fully fit and always keeps on hiding behind other players,fearing he may get hit," Aslam said.
