In this form, we'll be lucky to finish in top eight at Rio 2016: Terry Walsh

Prior to the team's departure for Incheon, did you expect of winning the gold medal?
Yeah, I think so. We believed we were playing at a level which would allow us to win the tournament. So there was a sense of quiet confidence. The joy of winning has to be respected because this bunch hadn't won a big tournament. I've read this is the first time in 16 years that we have won the Asian Games. And beating Pakistan obviously added a lot of flavour to that. But we spoke a lot about the fact that this India-Pakistan business is no different from say, Germany playing the Netherlands or Australia playing England. You have to keep these regional passions under control. That is what happens in India-Pakistan clashes. They let their emotions come into their game so much, and people accept that. You can't accept that.

The loss to Pakistan in the league stage was a bit of an eye-opener, wasn't it?
I don't think we're naive enough to think that Pakistan weren't going to put in a good performance. Quite honestly, losing to Pakistan, or anyone, was not a big problem on the way through as long as you don't set yourself a target of beating everybody on the way through and not have your most important performances at the end of the tournament.
There's a change in mentality from being the hunter, which is what India are when they're playing the World Cup or Commonwealth Games, to being the hunted in the Asian Games. That's a big difference, psychologically. You've got to be careful because when you're the hunted, you're expected to win all the time. And honestly, I don't think people in India have understood the difference between when they were the hunted way back, and the transition that has taken place. They've been the hunter for a long time now and never been able to go to the next level. I think the transition has begun. Learning how to deal with that is an art, and I'm really pleased the players have managed to do that. In the end, you've now got a group of heroes the young players can look up to.

Looking back at the penalty shootouts, did the team specifically practise it going into the final?
Of course. But you've got to remember that Pakistan had won the same way against Malaysia in the semis. So we'd seen them, and we were practising our own stuff. We knew who was capable and who wasn't. But that's the technical side. Then there's the mental side of being able to do that in the moment. Probably, there would've been very few people in the country who would've included, say, a Birendra Lakra, in that group. If you choose the so-called hockey giants of the world like Dhanraj Pillay or Michael Nobbs, they wouldn't have picked those guys at all. Because they don't think that way, in a calculated manner. They just play with emotion. You can't do that in the modern world. It doesn't work.
When we started doing it, it was atrocious. We were terrible. The difference between taking things in a bit of fun and seriously at the right moment is a delicate mix. So I think we've got a very good group of players who are able to register when it is important and when it's not to be in control of your mind. These are all new things for them, and they're very good at it.

The biggest advantage of winning in Incheon is that you don't have to go through the Olympic qualifiers. But do you fear a sense of complacency setting in over the next two years?
With the media, yes. With the administration, yes. With the playing group, no. The playing group is well aware that it doesn't matter if you qualify directly or go through the process of qualifying — and there's a strong argument that you want to qualify and not go direct. Twenty-two months is a long time, and you've got to be very astute in the way you function after you've qualified. For us, it's not a matter of sitting on your laurels. I think if we go to the Olympics in this shape and form, we won't finish in the top six. We'll be lucky to finish in the top eight. So you've got a lot of work to do if you want to give yourself a chance to be on the podium. And to go from winning the Asian Games in 2014 to being on the podium in Olympics 2016 is a huge leap.
It's interesting because I hear people talk about 2016, but not one journalist has asked me what about 2024? That's where the focus needs to be — how do you get yourself to be sustainably excellent over that period of time. And then you'll know you've got a programme that is going to work. To generate what happened 40-50 years ago. That's where I come from, that's where (Hockey India high performance director) Roelant (Oltmans) comes from. That's what we're trying to set up. But nobody understands that (laughs). Everything here is about the moment, not about the process of development.

You say this is a good group of players. But are you also looking for new and young talent that can put pressure on the established players?
Well, the short answer is yes. The reason is because you're looking at 2020. You've got to continuously turn over players. You need some young guys to come in and challenge the established players. For example, (captain) Sardar (Singh) is getting a huge challenge at the moment. Manpreet (Singh) is putting more challenge on him than people realise. He's performing at Sardar's level. People don't credit the fact that Lakra was our best player at the tournament. People don't register in that area at all, because they're still focused on this stardom that sits around someone like a PR Sreejesh who does well in a shootout, or Sardar who has been full of accolades over the last six years. But we've got young ones coming through, and very good ones. We've got a few who weren't part of this team, but are very likely to be a part of the Olympics team.

You mentioned there's still some work to do. What are the key areas you're looking at in the coming years — defence, field goal conversation, perhaps?
Look, there are few of them. We've got issues in nearly every department. The most difficult one is finishing, which is the last piece that goes into being an absolutely high-quality team that has consistency for a long period of time. Very few teams can do that, and India is just not there. That's an area we have to improve in. We are much better than what we were eight months ago. But how do you explain a (SV) Sunil missing an open goal (in the final)? The person who will know the most what happened there is Sunil himself. And he'll love playing that moment again. The reality is he won't. But he will get another opportunity and if he makes the same mistake again, then you've got a problem. I don't think he will. I don't mind guys falling at hurdles. What I have a problem with is if they don't get up and fix it.

Do you think this gold medal means that India are the best hockey-playing nation in Asia at the moment?
Yes, I think it does. India are better than any other country in Asia at the moment. And India is growing. A team like Korea has been dominant in the Asian region for the past few years, but they're an old team now. Their Under-21 team didn't appear in the last Junior World Cup. So they're not going up in the quality. I think they are slightly declining. The other big one in the region is Pakistan, and they've got so many difficulties from their political situations. I think it's going to be a tough road for them. I still see India and Pakistan as the two best teams in Asia.

There was talk of your future with the team being in doubt had India failed to win...
(Laughs) There was not one ounce of truth in that. Because my involvement in the programme doesn't have anything to do whether we won the Asian Games or came fourth. I'm not interested in that, because I know it doesn't mean anything. Let me tell you, I'll be the one who chooses when to leave the programme. No one else will tell me when. It will be as simple as that. All of this stuff that is being written and driven, I categorically say that it's complete nonsense. It's driven by people who really have no knowledge, and people who think they do. There's a lot of those people in Indian hockey, and that's very dangerous.

India under Walsh

Terry Walsh took over the Indian men hockey team in October last year. Here's a list of how the team performed under him in major tournaments:
Hockey World League, January 2014: Sixth
Hockey World Cup, June 2014: Ninth
Commonwealth Games, July-Aug 2014: Silver
Asian Games, Sept-Oct 2014, Gold