Calcutta: India’s failure to qualify for the Olympics for the first time in 80 years evoked a strong reaction from the hockey fraternity.

The following are excerpts from what some of the former Olympians had to say (alphabetically):

BIR BAHADUR CHHETRI: A dark day in Indian hockey. There’s no point passing the buck in the blame game that has already started. Rather we should point a finger at ourselves to try and analyse the shortcomings. Only then can we hope to arrest the slide.

KESHAV DUTT: The performance has left me speechless. I’m just short of crying.

However, I’m not surprised since this was expected. We haven’t been doing well and had finished seventh in Athens. I’m very disappointed and feel hurt. It’s sad that I had to live to see this… May be this will turn out to be a blessing in disguise. I’m waiting to see if the disaster rings in a change at the IHF. Fresh faces will mean new set of ideas and that will help the game. If KPS Gill continues, there will be more tamasha and more politics.

GURBUX SINGH: A sad day for Indian hockey. There’s no doubt that we played badly… Conceding two goals in the first 10 minutes is a reflection of how poorly we performed. Ric Charlesworth’s services should have been sought. He was not even allowed to go to Chile…

Just as one win doesn’t take us to the top of the world, one defeat doesn’t mean it’s the end… We will get the chance to redeem our pride in the next couple of years as the Commonwealth Games and World Cup will be held in Delhi. If you look at it, India haven’t made the semi-finals in a World Cup or the Olympics for the past 28 years.

So the decline hasn’t happened overnight. We didn’t do well in Doha Asian Games and so had to go through the qualifications.