India Men Hockey Team departs for New Zealand

New Delhi, 28 September 2015: The India Men Hockey Team departed in the early hours of 28^th September 2015 for the upcoming New Zealand Tour where they are scheduled to play four matches against New Zealand National Team and two matches against New Zealand A Team. The series is in preparation for the upcoming FIH Hockey World League Final, to be held in Raipur later this year where India will be seen clashing against top hockey teams of the world.

Speaking during the departure, Roelant Oltmans, Director, High Performance & India Men Chief Coach stated, “The New Zealand tour is important for us as we will get a good opportunity to play against top-rated team and which helps us to prepare for the upcoming tournaments in the next one year before going into Rio 2016 Olympics. The team has worked on all areas, which even included team combination and keeping the defence structure strong. In the present day hockey, conceding less number of goals is a positive factor and we aim to do this from here on”.

Speaking at the IGI Airport, Captain Sardar Singh added “Playing against New Zealand will be a good experience for our players and the Series will help us to rectify our loopholes. The Black Sticks are known for speed and quick passes. They have good players and some of them we have play with during the Hockey India League. We know their playing style and have prepared ourselves according to conditions there. The Preparatory Camp was productive for us and we have improved ourselves in various areas. We want to implement our learning and expect positive results.”

India will be playing their first match on 2^nd October 2015 against New Zealand A at 06.30 IST at Auckland.

Match Schedule