Former India skipper and defender Pargat Singh, who is team manager for his country in the ongoing Sultan Azlan Shah tournament, made the observation after seeing Argentina thrashed India 5-1 on Friday.
“India are no longer a feared side anymore. And this is not good as we will be hosting the Commonwealth Games and the World Cup in New Delhi in 2010.
“We now have a short and long term programme,” said Pargat.
The short term programme is targeted for the Commonwealth Games and the World Cup.”
He added that the long term programme is aimed for the 2014 World Cup.
“We should concentrate more on the long term programme to be on par with top teams in the world,” said Pargat, who is the Punjab Director of Sports.
India, eight-time Olympic champions, failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics after losing 0-2 to Britain in the final of the Olympic qualifiers in Chile in March.
This is the first time since the 1928 Olympics India have failed to make it to the Games.
Pargat with 313 international caps said, that there were several reasons for the team’s failure in the Olympic qualifiers recently.
“The players lack the basic skills. Changing of coaches too often also affects the team’s performance,” said Pargat.
“A coach should be with the team for four years and a coach should not be changed after just one tournament.
“We also need more qualified coaches and artificial turfs in India to have a bigger pool of players.
“We only have four turfs in Punjab, which is too few for such a big state,” said Pargat who played for India from 1983 to 1997.
Pargat, who has captained the Indian team in 168 matches from 1989 to 1997, said poor administration and marketing was also one of the causes.
The Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) was suspended by the Indian Olympic Council (IOC) last month after the IHF secretary Jothi Kumaran allegedly took a bribe to include a 16-year-old player for the Sultan Azlan Shah tournament.
IOC took over the IHF and removed the president K. P. S Gill and Jothi.
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