Goal is to win a medal: Indian men’s hockey team captain & coach ahead of CWG 2022 campaign

Ahead of their Commonwealth Games 2022 campaign opener on Sunday, Indian men’s hockey team captain Manpreet Singh and chief coach Graham Reid have said that they are not under pressure and are looking forward to winning a medal.

The Indian men’s hockey team, which arrived in Birmingham on July 23, more than a week ahead of their campaign opener against Ghana, have been busy in training since. 

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Indian chief coach Graham Reid, under whose tutelage India clinched their Tokyo Olympics medal last year, interacted in a virtual press conference recently, where he was asked regarding his expectations from the mega event. 

“I must say, I don’t think that anyone’s expectations of us are more than that of our own expectations. We really have high expectations of what we expect from ourselves and also from each other. So, yes, we are not weighed down by these expectations,” he said.

The 58-year-old tactician also remarked that while he and his team are not bothered by the internal expectations, they remain helpless while dealing with external pressure.

“Of course, we cannot do much about the external expectation, but we can do something about our own expectations and that’s what we do as it keeps the pressure on us but it’s in a good way because we are the ones that can control that,” he added.

Indian captain Manpreet Singh was also in attendance with Reid, who led India to their Tokyo Olympics bronze medal, the first in four decades. The halfback is also set to make his 300th appearance for the national team in their match against Ghana on Sunday.

“I am really glad to have played 299 games for India. I am excited about it but my focus at the moment is on the game against Ghana and the team and I am not that concerned about the personal milestone,” he said.

Singh pointed out that he knows about the expectations from the fans and wants to be in their best self during every match, while not underestimating any team.

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“Yes, we know that fans have expectations from us that we will win a medal in Birmingham. We discussed the same before arriving here that if our focus is on winning a medal, we will eventually be victorious in our efforts but we need to work on it first,” he said. 

“We want to do our best in every single game, we are not going to take any team lightly and yes our final goal is to win a medal here,” the 30-year-old added.