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'We had no business to lose..', says hockey coach

''We lost the semifinal encounter to Malaysia which we had no business to lose," admitted national hockey coach M K Kaushik, following the team's return from the Commonwealth Games without having won a medal.

''We should have won that match by at least eight goals, the Malaysians were nowhere in the picture, we totally dominated the procedings but failed to convert the numerous chances that came our way,'' Kaushik said in New Delhi this afternoon.

Kaushik, who took over from Vasudevan Bhaskran following the team's disastrous showing in the aftermath of the World Cup, said, "In my life I have never seen such open goals being squandered, I am at a loss to explain why this happened, and we paid dearly."

The coach said though he was ''satisfied'' with the team's performance, especially after the World Cup debacle, he felt that "a lot remains to be done, we missed so many chances which is something I don't think any team can afford in this type of competition."

Kaushik admitted that his team played badly against Australia. "But after that, we gave a better display," he said.

Against Australia, "our goalkeeping was very bad but it improved in later matches", the coach said.

Kaushik was full of praise for deep defender Dilip Tirkey, saying he gave an "outstanding performance throughout", while the other full back Barla "played well but needs to have better understanding with Ramandeep."

He said that in the half line Saini, Thiruvalavan and Ramandeep were "okay", while Mohammad Riaz had played as a withdrawn forward throughout.

The coach was evasive about the forwards, however, saying merely that ''everybody did his duty''.

He said that against Australia ''the forwards should have played a more attacking game. They should have been on the offensive, but we allowed them to dominate by going defensive.''

Kaushik said that against South Africa ''The boys gave a much better display and though we won only by a 2-1 margin, it was a good game and mind you, SA is not an easy team to beat."

He admitted that Wales and Trindad and Tobago were easy rivals, but added, "I must say that we had no business to lose against Malaysia.

''We lost to england in the tie breaker and again in this match also, we had some good chances to score,'' Kaushik admitted.

Asked about penalty corner conversions, Kaushik, who was formerly coach of the women's hockey team, candidly admitted that "it was average, we could have converted more but failed."