An Asian Games gold medal after a 16-year hiatus and a direct ticket to the 2016 Olympic Games were some of the high points in what was a rare successful year for Indian hockey even though national coach Terry Walsh's unceremonious resignation provided a bitter ending to 2014.
It was a year of development for Indian hockey as the senior men's team took giant strides towards reclaiming its past glory, which included eight Olympic gold medals.
Besides the Asian Games gold in Incheon, South Korea, the men's team registered several other memorable victories including a historic Test series win against world champions Australia in their own backyard.
Walsh had a rather gloomy start to his coaching stint in India as the senior men's team finished a lowly sixth in the eight-nation Hockey World League (HWL) Final, which incidentally was the Australian's first assignment with the eight-time Olympic champions.
The Sardar Singh-led side looked completely disorganised in the tournament and from their performance in the HWL Final it was quite apparent that they would need time to get used to the coaching methods of Walsh. The only positive that came out from the tournament was a 5-4 victory over Olympic champions Germany.
After taking over the team, Walsh hardly got any time to try out things before his first big assignment, the World Cup at The Hague, Netherlands.
The only platform the Australian got prior to the World Cup was the preparatory tour to The Hague. Walsh used this tour to test his combinations and worked tirelessly on the basic skills and fitness of the players, the results of which started to show slowly as the year progressed.
However, at the World Cup, the team disappointed finishing a disappointing ninth.
Conceding late goals, their perennial problem, continued to haunt India in the World Cup as they suffered close defeats against Belgium and England and drew against Spain before being drubbed 0-4 by eventual champions Australia.
The Indians, however, managed to beat South Korea 3-0 to finish ninth.
