New national men's hockey chief coach Terry Walsh is looking at a timeframe of five to seven years for the country to regain its lost glory at the world level and feels short term success would be of no lasting use.
"I understand where Indian hockey was and where it is. I also understand how my performance works along with Roelant Oltmans (Hockey India's high performance manager). It's a process and it takes time for the change to come," said the Australian, who has come here with Oeltmans to witness the last stages of the 48th Bombay Gold Cup tournament being held at the Mahindra Stadium, at a media conference today.
"Always the question is how long? Everybody wants tomorrow, but it's not possible. It probably could be somewhere between 5-7 years to be consistently in the very top of the world," said the Aussie.
"The process is the key part .... It will take quite a few years to consistently get a good result. It's possible to get a short term result but that's not of any use. We are looking for consistency and progression over the next 4-6 years and then beyond."
The former centre forward said he would strive to retain the Indian style of play combined with elements to shore up the defence, seen as the Achilles Heel of teams from the sub-continent.
"It's a process to develop a style that works for Indian hockey players and the style that works primarily for Indian hockey players is the Indian style of hockey. But it must have elements that shore up the defence," said the Western Australian who is to celebrate his 60th birthday next month.
"It must have elements, how men in attack work as defenders when they don't have the ball, efficiently and effectively. They must understand what to do in that 99 per cent of the time when they don't have the ball.
"So, if we can fix those things, then I believe that the style of hockey that is most suited and the most threatening to the rest of the world is the Indian style of hockey. It's going to be the Indian way of playing in the modern era," said Walsh who had played in the 1982 World Cup for Australia at the adjacent Wankhede Stadium.
