Mumbai: The Indian Hockey team, which failed to qualify for the Olympics for the first time in 80 years, landed here on Wednesday.
India lost to Great Britain 0-2 in the recently concluded qualifying event held in Santiago, Chile. The failure of qualifying in the Olympics also prompted Coach Joaquim Carvalho to resign along with his support staff comprising of Mohindar Pal Singh and Ramesh Parmeshwaran.
Former Coach of the Indian Hockey team Joaquim Carvalho has blamed the loss to bad performance and too many on-field decisions going against them, however, he seemed tight lipped about structural changes in the administration.
Speaking to reporters after their arrival, Carvalho said there was nothing wrong in the preparation for the tournament, just that the team did not play up to their potential on the day the team lost to Great Britain.
"The preparation went on the right lines and even now we have a very good team. It is just that we did not play up to our potential and we lost the match," he said.
The coach also took a jibe at the refereeing and accused them of not being up to the mark and booked the players unnecessarily without reasoning.
"We played with ten players for 25 minutes and got cards, which was not deserving and reprimanded even those players who did not get a card. They issued letters against them (players) and also called them after the matches and kept them waiting for one hour in their (referee's) rooms," he added.
Carvalho added that the referee's issued warning in one match against players stating that if 'you' commit a foul in one match they (players) shall be pulled up in the next one.
He said that he would take up the matter with the federation. "I will certainly take this issue up when I submit my report to the Indian Hockey Federation," he said. Asked whether he would reconsider his resignation, he said, "I will have to consider with what the federation decides. I haven't spoken to Gill yet. But certainly with the resignation, the morale in the team is very low."
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