"Failure to qualify for the Olympics is the catalyst for the change that needs to occur"

It's a pleasure. Thank you.

•I have been a fan of yours since my childhood. And we all know you played from '72 until the late 80s.Who can forget the marauder in that headband. I think teams around the world had come to fear you?

I'm not so sure about that. Perhaps the longevity surprised them. I think that was more than anything.

•Yes because the people who played with you then became coaches in abroad teams to play against you. Ajit Pal Singh, for example, a great centre half, he played against you. In t he 86 World Cup he was the coach of the team. So you have seen three generations of Indian hockey players.

Yes, I started in 1972, I remember playing one Harmik who was the captain of the team. I was a young boy playing right wing for Australia. Then few years later in 1975, then , of course, saw I India win in Kualalampur. In 1976, we toppled you in Montreal.

•And we stayed toppled since then?

Well may be that was the start of it. But it took a long time for us to get there.

•What are Let's go back a little bit. What was hockey like there and what has changed? What led to that top leg?

Now, that I have seen how it works in India I better understand it. I understand what happened. We're real amateurs in the 70s in Australia. The right winger who played next to me lived 5000 kms away and I saw him when we got in the plane to go away and play together. We didn't have any time to prepare properly. We're amateur hockey players. We got together for few weeks a year to play together. India had camps, India had centralised preparations, India had professional players.

... contd.