Sport
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Hockey
India brimming with confidence
By S. Thyagarajan
KAULA LUMPUR, DEC. 6. Another voyage of hope and discovery blossoms for India in a mood of euphoria against the backdrop of the unprecedented triumph in the Junior World Cup when the seniors are poised to stake their claim to enter the elite zone of competitive hockey.
A cup win in the first ever Champions Challenge, that goes on stage tomorrow at the impeccable hockey facility at Bukit Jalil, will ensure India a place in the next year's Champions Trophy at Cologne.
If the presumption that India has the confidence and wherewithal to accomplish such a task exists, then it stems from the composition of the squad, which includes as many as 10 who figured in the Hobart World Cup. A fine blend of energetic youth with excellence personified campaigners underscores the feeling of prevailing optimism.
Not in recent years has India assembled a frontline, as versatile as it has managed to thread one now. If Dhanraj Pillay, Sabu Varkey and Baljit Singh Dhillon symbolise the essence of experience, efficiency and enterprise, the combination of Deepak Thakur, Gagan Ajit Singh, and Prabhjot Singh projects that aura of youth which crafted a red letter day in the Junior World Cup. Even the mid-fielders like Bipin Fernandez and Arjun Halappa can supplement the attack from the mid-field. This gives the chief coach, Cedric D'Souza, enough scope to manoevure and maintain the required measure of vibrancy in the attack.
Thirumal and Sukhbir Singh Gill constitute a tower of strength in the mid-field, that will be sustained by the inputs from the youth brigade of Vikram Pillay and Ignace Tirkey. While Jugraj Singh in the defence is bound to receive more than usual attention after his success rate in the penalty corners, a lot depends on the seasoned Lazarus Barla and the young Kanwalpreet to police the deep defence. That Jude Menezes under the bar should be vigilant as ever goes without saying. The outcome of the match, invariably rests on the consistency displayed by the goal-keeper. And every time when Jude rose to the occasion the result had gone in favour of India.
Predicting the verdict is as dangerous as stepping on a mine-field in a competition involving such high stakes as the Champions Challenge. But the majority has opted to stamp Argentina the favourite, purely from the standpoint of recent record. Surely, a world class penalty corner striker like Jorge Lombi can alter the status of a match in minutes.
His tally of 19 in the World Cup qualifier is sufficient proof of his calibre. Interestingly, he was the top scorer at the last Olympics too. At the World Cup qualifier in Edinburgh, where Argentina recorded a gold medal triumph, winger Mario Almeida and Jorge Lombi shared between themselves as many as 28 goals. Unless these two are contained, there is little chance for any opposition to come out unscathed.
Dogged by the injury for some months now, the icon of Malaysian hockey, Mirnawan Nawawi is compelled to miss this competition. The hope here is that he will be in shipshape for the World Cup, only a couple of months away. Admittedly, the Malaysians are formidable on home turf, and this has been proved times without number. The combination is again a mix of young and old.
The absence of star striker, Greg Nicol and Emille Smith considerably weakens South Africa, which had to miss the Olympics owing to the flawed perception of its National Olympic Committee. Shorn of any significant international exposure this year, the South Africans may be a bit rusty but are resilient enough to adjust to any given situations.
Japan and Belgium should be thirsting to show that their World Cup entry from Edinburgh was no flash in the pan. Japan, which gained the place after a gap of 28 years through a golden goal against New Zealand and forced India almost to that stage in the classification matches, is not a side to be taken lightly. Both in penalty corners and flashy hits, they are a force to reckon with. The weather in Kuala Lumpur may be a dampener for the Belgians, who regained their spot in the World Cup after a gap of eight years.
There is some concern about the brand new pitch, the relaying of which was completed only yesterday. None of the teams was allowed to have a feel of the surface. Only when the matches begin tomorrow can there be any comment on the new synthetic facility.
Everything points to a sharp finish, appropriately it will be a trend setter for the biggest show in competitive hockey-the World Cup in February-March 2002.
Friday's matches: South Africa v Argentina (2-35 p.m IST), India v Belgium (4-35 p.m); Japan v Malaysia (6-35 p.m).
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