STICKING TOGETHER
The Champions Trophy saw India display flair and tenacity in plenty— with a homegrown coach in charge. Dhruv Munjalwonders if this batch of players is the best we’ve had in a long while
Und er dog spirit evokes a strange sense of oneness among watchers of sport. And an under dog victory generally translates into a feat befitting the very ac me of sporting romanticism. An under dog defeat, on the other hand, mostly sparks as ad consternation ,“they surely-deserved-better” stuff. Ar are, brilliant ly engrossing exhibit last Sunday managed to simultaneously capture these dualities. Russia with stood a pass assault— 1,114 genteel ones, to be precise— by Spain’ s latest troop of twinkle toed dans eur sand eventually prevailed on penalty kicks in the football World Cup. In Champions Trophy hockey, India ran Australia ragged with a speed and skill that we scarce ly thought they were capable of, only to shocking ly disintegrate in the shoot out. If Spain’ s performance, in the words of the innovative Barney Ron a yin The Guardian, was “dinner jazz football—nifty, neat, but also apparently without end ”, India’ s was like a boy band belting out hits from its first album at a teenage birthday party: original, refreshing, every bit encore worthy. Both lost—one rather deservedly, the other less so. “This is the best I’ ve seen India at a major tournament in alongtime. Generally, weplay well in a couple of games and are terrible in there st. This time, the consistency was remarkable,” notes former national team captain V ir en Rasquinha, the most articulate of India’ s hockey brains .“In the final, despite playing so well, it just didn’ t happen .” Before the tournament in B red a, the Netherlands, any suggestions that India would be able to stand up to the might of Australia—or any of the other top dogs for that matter—were naturally dismissed. India vs Australia on a hockey field, afterall, is one of the great mis matches of modern sport. Eight years ago, on a brutal ly sultry New Delhi afternoon, I braved the front-row horror of watching India ship eight against the Aussie sin the final of the Commonwealth Games. Since 2010, India has beaten them only seven times in 37 attempts. Sunday was another failed one, but it reflected a kind of stick symphony we were convinced bore the tag of extinction. Australia never looked so vulnerable. And while possibly at ad premature, it wouldn’ t be unfair to say that this is perhaps India’ s finest team in recent memory.
“There were so many excellent young players who really shone through in B red a. Plus with the seniors coming back, it was the perfect combination ,” feels Jo aquim Car val ho, former international and national coach.
At the end of the Commonwealth Games in April, where the team finished a disappointing fourth, the national set-up resembled a broken family. The prelude to the Games had seen coach at the time, Dutchman Sjoerd
Marijne, leave out a bunch of seniors— most notably, former captain S ar dar
Singh— that led to an imbalance and disjointedness that eventually proved impossible to overcome at the Gold Coast.
For the Champions
Trophy, Marijn e’ s successor, the ever-sharp H ar end ra Singh, successfully restored order in thehouse, recalling Sardar, Sure nd er Sing hand Bi rend ra
Lakra, and thereby inf using the stability lacking in campaigns past .“All three were excellent and made a massive difference ,” says Rasquinha.
Sardar, employed in his preferred centre-half by Harendra, was canny with his distribution and offered a world-class alternative to Mandeep Singh; Surender and Lakra provided a back-to-front push that helped the team power past Pakistan and Olympic champions Argentina. And youngsters Dilpreet Singh and Vivek Sagar Prasad, superbly complemented by the seasoned duo of SVSu nil and Ram an deep Singh, led the forward line— despite not being precise in front of goal— with energy and imagination.
Nothing, however, makes this performance as significant as the fact that it has come under a home grown coach. Hockey India, long obsessed with foreign coaches, has often inadvertently deemed Indian ones in competent for the somewhat complicated job. Imported successes, though, have been few— while Jose Bras a and Ro el ant O lt manswr ought considerable change, both in style and results, Ger hard R ac hand Paul van Ass were calamities Indian fans will want to forge tina hurry.
Harendra, a middling player who had to pay for his coaching badges from his own pocket, is clearly proving his boss es wrong. Winner of the 2016 World Cup with the junior men’ s team, H ar end ra isa hockey-obsessed coach who spends hours developing tactics and studying formations; he em braces technology like no other Indian coach we’ ve seen. Most pleasing ly, in his limited tenure, he has shown he can unite and inspire players in away foreign coaches strugg led to.
“Heist he right man for the job and I hope they stick with him for sometime. When we appoint a foreign coach, we highlight stuff like ‘plan’ and‘ process ’, but with Indian ones, we expect miracles overnight ,” says Car val ho, who was the national side’ s last full-time Indian coach, more than a decade ago .“H ar end ra has done well so far, but we must keep backing him .”
There are, despite reasonable cause for elation, areas where this Indian team can improve. India’ s play from penalty corners was chaotic, leading to an embarrassing ly low conversion rate that often makes all the difference in World Cup sand the Olympic Games—two events where India has remained static in recent years. India trusted Harman p re et Singh( the first choice ), Va run Kumar and Am it R oh id as with the drag flicks, and all looked unconvincing. Which essentially means that a call-up for Ru pin der Pal Singh, who watched the Champions Trophy on his telly, looks very likely.
“Issues relating to both direct and indirect conversions from penalty corners must be addressed ,” stresses Ra squ in ha. Carvalho, on the other hand, says that India must focus on field goals .“We’ ve always been known for beautiful goals from open play. Forget penalty corners, we must look at improving our passing, switch in playand finishing.” Importantly, both invoke the need for a killer instinct, which would’ ve spared us the wastefulness displayed in the final.
And then there is the small matter of finding a backup for PR Sreejesh. The goalie was partially at fault for the opener in the final, but remains the serene monk-like figure that soothes nerves and tempers in the sometimes-disorderly world of the Indian defence. There are occasions when he isn’t the last line, but the only line, of defence.
“Clearly, there is a nover-reliance on him. Kris han Path aka ndSu ra j K ark era are decent keepers but not in the same league as Sreeje sh ,” says Ra squ in ha .“Without him in goal, India just doesn’ t look the same .”
India’ s next big challenge will arrive in the form of the Asian Games, starting in August. A gold medal in Jakarta and Palembang will see India cement a qualifying spot for Tokyo 2020— something that should be on top of H ar end ra’ s priority list right now. And despite a rapidly improving Pakistan under O lt man sand the usual suspect sin South Korea and Malaysia, India will start as heavy favourites in Indonesia. And that tag, unlike the status of the under dog, comes with a lot more pressure.
HARENDRA SINGH HAS SHOWNHE CAN UNITE AND INSPIRE PLAYERS IN A WAY FOREIGN COACHES STRUGGLED TO