Exclusive: It's a process, not instant coffee, but someone should be accountable - Former India coach Harendra Singh on India's Hockey World Cup fiasco

The pain of not going past the quarterfinals in 2018 is still there inside Harendra, and it flared up when he witnessed India giving it away in the crossover match on January 22 this time and succumbing to the pressure exerted by New Zealand, who held their nerve better in the sudden death shootout to win 5-4 and push India out of title contention.Harendra, who lives in California currently, was critical of what he saw from the stands of the Kalinga Stadium. India let a two-goal advantage slip twice when leading 2-0 and 3-1, which allowed the Black Sticks to not just come back but also wrest control of the game before entering the quarterfinals.

Hockey World Cup: All that went wrong for India

Talking to TimesofIndia.com for an in-depth analysis of India's sorry campaign, Harendra raised some razor-sharp questions.Excerpts:How does it feel to be back on home soil and especially Bhubaneswar where you have made a lot of memories?It's a privilege to be back here at this iconic (Kalinga) stadium. Any coach that comes here gets the goosebumps because people here know their hockey.How long has it been since your last visit here?After 2018, it's my first time here. Of course, since the last one and a half years I have moved to the US. But I can't be away from Bhubaneswar when it comes to hockey.Like so many Indian fans, you too must have been disappointed to see India not making it to the quarterfinals...If you ask me, 1.5 billion people are disappointed because we had created momentum, I would say, from the 2018 Champions Trophy (silver medal) and carried it till the Tokyo Olympics (bronze medal). But somewhere after that we lost that momentum. We shouldn't have fallen into the opponent's (New Zealand) trap. But we did and paid