RAJENDRA PRASAD MOHAPATRA Zafar Iqbal Zafar Iqbal. With less than 40 days to go until the FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023 Bhubaneswar-Rourkela, hockey fans are excited to revel in unknown facts, amusing anecdotes.
And special moments from hockey stars from all over the world who have reached the pinnacle at this prestigious event in the past.Zafar Iqbal, a legend in Indian hockey, talked about his time playing for the Indian men’s team in the 1970s and 1980s.
When Zafar Iqbal was given the job of representing India at the Men’s Hockey World Cup in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1978, he was one of the new players on the team. I played my most memorable game in the test series against the Netherlands at home in 1977. Before traveling to Argentina, we had a few overseas test series,โ Iqbal recalled.
He went on to say that the team went to Argentina to try to win the championship.
There was a strong belief that India would be a serious contender for the trophy because several of the players from the team that won the World Cup in 1975 were still on the roster. Our only goal was to successfully defend the trophy.
Before entering the tournament, that was the only thing that motivated us. We were very excited to perform on the big stage because the team had several new players. We were confident because our team included players from the 1975 World Cup squad. India lost their first tournament match against Canada, but they won against Australia.
India’s fate, however, was sealed by a 0-7 defeat to West Germany and a 1-1 draw to England, which prevented them from qualifying for the semifinals. We lost a few easy games in the tournament despite playing well. We couldn’t get prevails upon Britain and Germany and couldn’t arrive at the semi-finals. Iqbal recalled.
It was a big blow for us at the time because we were the Champions at the time.
India finished in sixth place in the tournament after dropping their final match against Spain. Iqbal, who also played in the Men’s Hockey World Cup in Mumbai in 1982, went on to talk about how hockey changed in the 1970s and 1980s.
Hockey was played on grass during our time. Be that as it may, astroturf began supplanting grass in many regions of the planet as the 80s came around. We were unable to perform at our best, and we were unable to qualify for the semi-finals once more, even though the 1982 World Cup was played on grass at home.
Zafar Iqbal states, “Now, Astro Turf has transformed hockey into a power game.” The players should be stronger and need more energy. Now, we needed to adjust to the attacking hockey of Europe. As time went on, we had to change.