Mumbai: Former India hockey captain Zafar Iqbal does not see the national team ending their three-decade old medal drought at the London Olympics this year, but is of the opinion that a semi-final berth would be a great achievement for the eight-time champions.
"Realistic chance (of India winning a medal in the July-August Games in London) is not there...there is no doubt about that. You can't jump from a low ranking to the medals straightaway.
The two-time Olympian, who was a member of the gold medal-winning Indian men's team at the 1980 Moscow Olympics said that reaching the last four stage would be a great achievement.
"You can try to improve the ranking to 5 or 6. If they can try and qualify for the semi-final, then it will be a big achievement," he said.
India have not achieved a podium finish after the Summer Games in Moscow 32 years ago. The country, in fact, missed the last Olympics at Beijing by failing to qualify for the first time in their long and successful history before making amends by qualifying for the upcoming London Games through the pre-Olympic event held at Delhi last month.
The 55-year-old former left-winger hailed current national coach Michael Nobbs, as the perfect pick for coaching the Indian team when asked to compare him with his predecessor Jose Brasa.
Zafar who led India to the silver medal in the 1982 Asian Games at Delhi and the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics said, "Brasa is a European (Spaniard). They (European hockey players) have a different style of play as compared to Australia. Australia learnt (hockey) from us when they (Anglo-Indians) migrated to Australia after the partition (of the subcontinent)."
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