Bhubaneswar: After spending a week in Kuala Lumpur to get acclimatised to the weather in the sub-continent, the Netherlands Hockey Team arrived in the Temple City of Bhubaneswar on Wednesday.
The team led by Billy Baker expressed excitement of returning to play at one of their favourite venues — the Kalinga Hockey Stadium and stated that they are ready to challenge India on their home ground.
“We are very happy to be back in Bhubaneswar. We have some good memories of playing matches here in front of a very passionate crowd,” expressed Billy Baker on the team’s arrival.
He further stated that his team will be looking forward to a good challenge posed by the Manpreet-led Indian team. “We have not really followed India so much in the last year, so if there are any new players in the squad, we are not sure how good they are but India are always technically very good and with Graham as their Chief Coach now, it will be interesting to see the kind of tactics they will use. We will be following them closely during the Pro League,” Baker said.
“We have come with our best team and our intention is to play our best hockey in the Pro League and build up to give our 100 per cent in Tokyo. Playing continuous top quality hockey with teams like Australia, India, Argentina, Belgium is very good to prepare for Olympics this year,” he added.
India will take on the Netherlands on 18 and 19 January at the Kalinga Hockey Stadium in Bhubaneswar.