Hockey World Cup: Harendra Singh laments poor umpiring during quarters defeat

Bhubaneswar: Indian men's hockey team coach Harendra Singh lashed out at the on-field umpires for their poor decisions during their quarter-final match against the Netherlands in the ongoing Hockey World Cup here at the Kalinga Stadium on Thursday.

The coach was unhappy over umpire's decision to award the Dutch team a penalty corner, off which they scored the winning goal.

"I want to say that we can fight 11 versus 11 in a match but not 13 versus 11. The umpires cannot rob the World Cup from this team. It happened two times in the game, we got a card when we had done nothing wrong. Their decisions went against us," Harendra said.

"The outcome of a protest has never been good in my career. We will accept this gracefully but what we want is neutral umpiring. I expect both teams to be treated equally. One wrong decision can ruin the preparation of four to six years," he added.

When asked if the team is going to launch an official appeal against the decision, Indian skipper Manpreet Singh responded, "There is hardly any use of appealing now. We have anyways lost the World Cup."

Manpreet, while admitting that India lost a wonderful opportunity to lift the World Cup title, said that he is happy with the kind of effort put in by the team.

"The opportunity was good, there is no doubt about that but the team put a great effort. Being a young side, players were never on low confidence. There was a chance but we could not capitalize on the same," Manpreet said.

Indian hopes of lifting the World Cup title were shattered when the hosts lost their quarter-final clash of the prestigious tournament 1-2 against the Netherlands.