Road to London 2012

The year 2012 is predicted as the end of the world; I am not a believer of these predictions. But I firmly believe in the present Indian Hockey team’s promise to bring India back on the Olympic stage. I am all excited about the young Indian team, whose average age is 23 with youngest player at 18 years coming from the heartlands of Coorg - Uthappa Sannuvanda Kushalappa.

Hero FIH Road to London (Men) Delhi 2012 - starting on 18-02-2012 at Major Dhyan Chand National stadium is a six nation qualifying tournament for the Summer Olympics with only the winner going to London 2012.

Chief Coach Michael Nobbs has a team with a mix of experience and youth. Ignace Tirkey is the oldest and most experienced member (236 caps) of the team at 30 years of age. The team is led by acrobatic goalkeeper Bharat Kumar Chetri and assisted by mercurial center half Sardar Singh. There are a bunch of drag flickers with experienced Sandeep Singh, Raghunath V and young Rupinder Pal Singh all set to convert the penalty corners to goals for India.

Poland and Canada pose a big challenge to the Indian team and make things a little tough. Singapore, Italy and French are the least experienced and this time around India should walk through the opponents and make a comeback to the Olympic stage after their missed bus of 2008 Beijing Olympics.

All matches are telecasted Live on Ten Sports in India and live video streaming on http://www.fih.livesport.tv/ . However, In India due to territory licensing restrictions, live video streaming is not possible. You can also catch all the action at FIH website.

I wish Indian Hockey team all the good luck and hope our team will bring back India to the stage where it ruled the game of Hockey – The Olympics.