Saturday, Aug 02, 2003
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Hockey
By Our Sports Reporter
In order to achieve this, the performance graph and results will be looked at with interest and the junior Indian squad under coach Harendra Singh is looking forward to deliver, beginning with the seven-nation tourney at Poznan (Poland). Of the 36 probables, two players — Gauravdeep Singh and Praveen Kumar (both Punjab) — failed to report owing to exams and the third, Vikramkanth of Karnataka, was sidelined with jaundice. The remaining will go through a strenuous session for the next two days — August 2 and 3 — before the team is shortlisted. The team will be involved in the seven-nation Champions Challenge tourney from August 18 to 24. Harendra will be assisted by Clarence lobo of Tata SC (Mumbai) with Saju Joseph as physio and trainer. Harendra and Indian hockey have a reputation to fall back on youngsters and with most of them having a couple of more years in their age group, the investment has been wise and shrewd. However, it will only be viable if the team returns with glory. India has been pooled with Poland, France and Egypt in a relatively easy `B' group while Pakistan, Germany, Malaysia and the last-minute replacement for Spain — Poland's champion club side — form group A. In a chat with The Hindu, Harendra spoke about India's chances. The excerpts: Question: How do you rate this team? Answer: There is a wealth of talent in the junior and sub-junior levels. Skillwise there can be no two opinions about the Indians... what we lack is strategic play and physical toughness as compared to the Europeans and Australians. Q: What about the prospects of the team in the forthcoming tourney and the future? A: It's the same team that played that won the MCC tournament at Chennai recently. The medios and fullbacks are the strength of the team as of now... the forwards not having played together is a bit of a worry. Hopefully, by the time the team leaves the Indian shores, things should look up on that front too. The core of the team is similar to the one that won in Egypt two years ago. Q: Your comments about the senior side? A: Barring a couple of changes, the team looks well balanced. Goalkeeping, which was never our strong point, is now the strength of the team. Two to three early saves will do a wealth of good to the morale of the team. Q: What next for the junior team? A: Well, if everything goes well, the team should qualify for the World championships. But the basic aim is to get a team ready for the Asia Cup tourney in Singapore (slated for December 12 to 21), the World Cup qualifiers and the World Cup in 2005. The Asia Cup in Singapore will also be the qualifying tournament for the World Cup. Q: Having achieved a semblance of success, what's in store for Indian hockey? A: Indian hockey is capable of delivering more laurels. Skill and talent is in abundance... we need to improve on the penalty corner variations, and need to tackle more robustly. Otherwise, we are on par, if not better, than most of the other teams.
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