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2002 not a great year for Indian hockey
New Delhi, Dec 27: It was a mixed year for Indian hockey with a few quality wins and some embarrassing outings against Minnows.
New Delhi, Dec 27: It was a mixed year for Indian hockey with a few quality wins and some embarrassing outings against Minnows.
Hockey had a crowded calender with the World Cup, Champions Trophy and the Asian Games besides a few four-nation tournaments that saw the India seniors lock horns with the best.
After annexing the inaugural champions challenge and the junior World Cup there was much hype and euphoria as the year dawned. The expectancy levels were at a high as India embarked at Kuala Lumpur for the tenth edition of the World Cup.
It was here that India had won the World crown in 1975 and also the Champions Challenge in 2001. They also had a decent crowd support here. However Baljit Singh Dhillon and his band disappointed.
Japan clipped their wings in the opener 2-2 as India struggled to restore parity after conceeding the lead twice. Asian powerhouse South Korea, silver medallists at the Sydney Olympics, grounded them in the next game and hosts Malaysia affected the knockout punch in their third outing.
India`s chances of thus making the last four cut blew away in smoke as the sinking ship was deserted midway by chief coach Cedric D`souza and in this sixteen team championship, India finished a dismal tenth.
The Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) think-tank realised that there was no time to waste for post-mortems and finding skeletons in the cupboard. The need of the hour was to get rid of the deadwood and infuse the freshness of some juniors in order to defend the Asiad title at Busan.
The time was ripe to try the mix and match strategy in the twin four-nation tournaments in Australia and later at the Champions Trophy preparatory at Amstelveen in the summer.
The Australian tournaments at Brisbane and Melbourne saw India make the final, after beating the Koreans, only to lose to the hosts. Coach of the junior team Rajinder Singh, the full back who played for India in the Moscow Olympics and was top scorer in the Bombay World Cup, was entrusted with the senior squad. He brought in nine of his junior wards from the victorious Hobart Junior World Cup team.
After many training and conditioning camps at Bangalore and Delhi, the nucleus of the team was in place. Rajinder exuded confidence as the boys embarked for the Rabobank four nation at Amstelveen en route for the Champions Trophy at Cologne.
The first tournament was to be a tester for the teams temperament and skill against the big boys, world champions Germany, defending Olympic champions Holland and South Korea. The Indians however lost to the superpowers but held the fast improving Koreans to a draw.
Bureau Report
Hockey had a crowded calender with the World Cup, Champions Trophy and the Asian Games besides a few four-nation tournaments that saw the India seniors lock horns with the best.
After annexing the inaugural champions challenge and the junior World Cup there was much hype and euphoria as the year dawned. The expectancy levels were at a high as India embarked at Kuala Lumpur for the tenth edition of the World Cup.
It was here that India had won the World crown in 1975 and also the Champions Challenge in 2001. They also had a decent crowd support here. However Baljit Singh Dhillon and his band disappointed.
Japan clipped their wings in the opener 2-2 as India struggled to restore parity after conceeding the lead twice. Asian powerhouse South Korea, silver medallists at the Sydney Olympics, grounded them in the next game and hosts Malaysia affected the knockout punch in their third outing.
India`s chances of thus making the last four cut blew away in smoke as the sinking ship was deserted midway by chief coach Cedric D`souza and in this sixteen team championship, India finished a dismal tenth.
The Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) think-tank realised that there was no time to waste for post-mortems and finding skeletons in the cupboard. The need of the hour was to get rid of the deadwood and infuse the freshness of some juniors in order to defend the Asiad title at Busan.
The time was ripe to try the mix and match strategy in the twin four-nation tournaments in Australia and later at the Champions Trophy preparatory at Amstelveen in the summer.
The Australian tournaments at Brisbane and Melbourne saw India make the final, after beating the Koreans, only to lose to the hosts. Coach of the junior team Rajinder Singh, the full back who played for India in the Moscow Olympics and was top scorer in the Bombay World Cup, was entrusted with the senior squad. He brought in nine of his junior wards from the victorious Hobart Junior World Cup team.
After many training and conditioning camps at Bangalore and Delhi, the nucleus of the team was in place. Rajinder exuded confidence as the boys embarked for the Rabobank four nation at Amstelveen en route for the Champions Trophy at Cologne.
The first tournament was to be a tester for the teams temperament and skill against the big boys, world champions Germany, defending Olympic champions Holland and South Korea. The Indians however lost to the superpowers but held the fast improving Koreans to a draw.
Bureau Report