The other guy was Dillep Tirkey or Ignes Tirkey and If i rememebr correctly they put a picture of his scooter in that article .
It wasn't Tirkey. It was another fella, less well known....Marathi iirc. Think literally just had couple years at most on the team. I forgot his name....might try look for it later.
I really want to mention the name of Kiren Rijuju Sir for doing a lot for Indian sports .
It's real simple, sports ecosystem cannot succeed without statist intervention. No one else will pick up the initial and middle mantle....goes for entire world in general.
@Deliorman @Sinan have been watching this from their end w.r.t Turkey and taking note too on that.
Only the big-crowd "sustained" sports then make leagues and corporate sponsorship to sustain more organically (Cricket for India a long time and now progressing to wrestling, badminton etc).
So this is sea change we are seeing in India's case over last decade or so and now coursing to next tier (rivers merging even).....but it maybe is still 30% intensity/focus (from state side) applied at 10% scope still.....but it beats earlier situation (say 10% at 5% scope) by wide margin....lets hope it continues to grow as fast and as furious as possible....we need things to look in 50%+ for both to break into top 20 and top 10 rank of medal table in olympics for example.
These are all things (state side support) that other countries (esp at our population level) took for granted far longer be it CCP monolith dedicated focus (after cultural revolution ended and interaction with world recommenced) or US collegiate level network on all kind of disciplines that extend for a century or more now.
The longer you are at it, the more experience you develop in the sports bureaucracy even (and the pressures + checks and balances and merit-cleansing involved to keep any inevitable goons there contained and in check..and even exposed).
Its muscle/mind memory...stuff you dont need to think about and worry about, you just know them intrinsically.
It is very much like the application of sport (or any discipline) itself....the more you train, the more you experience, the more you can do naturally without thinking.....and the mind can then deploy to higher tier stuff. This is what separates B-tier from A tier and A+ tier etc....you can input the same raw guy/gal into each of these but come out with different results depending on the process they have to cultivate all of this efficiently.
He is hardwired to what is happening now like no one else hehe:
Pillay said the bronze medal triumph was the result of a long process and the change did not happen overnight.
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“I think we should start preparing for the World Cup and next Olympic straightaway. We must have a wider core group of players and prepare them for the next mission,” he said.
Honestly I hope Hockey India does at least one of two things (preferably both):
A) Funded lot more to create much better domestic league tier to attract foreign players+coaching
B) Ability to join european teams at playing there in their setup (ensconced especially in the Rhine valley+delta i.e Netherlands, Belgium and Germany)
We are not going to get better fast enough with current roster of exposure (to mostly fellow asian teams and then a few international tourneys).
We need to study closely and deploy as much as possible what NED + BEL + GER have done over last 15 years.....simply having aussie coach etc is not going to be enough....there needs to be much larger apparatus intersection with these 3 countries in Europe....they are current creme de la creme (along with Aussies) for reason.
These 3 play regularly with each other a whole lot at great frequency and interaction, thats what has really helped them get to the highest tier quality and consistency.
Then and only then we will have chance of getting an A++ tier drag flicker like hendrickx for example....a total unit you can rely on close to 100% consistency instead of leaving a cpl missed opportunities that could have been difference between winning and losing in end (at this level).
Tamil Nadu has its own talents , you guys are busy in winning science nobles and running organizations like ISRO , BARC and DRDO .
Among other things heh. I doubt I would be playing chess as pastime, if it weren't for Vishy Anand.
Or working on my forehand and backhand when I get time....thinking of that immortal clash and (missed) opportunity Amritraj had with Bjorn Borg.
If kabbadi can really get international presence (esp olympics), we can do a lot there too.
For other stuff its not like we are very different to keralites and telugus....we broadly intersect with them...especially given Madras/Chennai legacy.
Gopichand started TN side of his academy in Salem, TN some years back....it will take time to grow and sustain a good crop....like original HYD one is now doing.
The squash legacy with keralites in Chennai goes back a ways too. Pallikal is just one recent fruit of it.
In fact I don't get why Squash didnt enter olympics yet again. There's all kinds of other sports that are way less in athletic ability included each time, its silly.