It was a buoyant 2003 for Indian Hockey as this national game never had it so good in recent years. After the national obsession Cricket, it was Hockey which grabbed the limelight and hogged attention as the team performed superbly in the international arena. The year saw Indian Hockey breaking the Pakistani jinx as they defeated the arch rivals five times in the eight clashes in a span of five months. The young brigade spearheaded by `poster boys` Gagan Ajit, Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh and solidly supported by unhearlded trio of Dilip Tirkey, Bimal Lakra and ignacious Tirkey, gave new dimension to team`s attitude and made it a power to reckon with in international arena. The old guards led by Dhanraj Pillay, Baljit Saini and Baljit Dhillon added good mixture of experience in the side that battled Australia on their own home turf, scoring five goals against them to win the three nation series. India then took part in the Panasonic 4 Nation Masters at Hamburg, before the Champions Trophy at Amstelveen. The other countries were hosts and world champions Germany, Spain and Argentina. India beat Spain and Argentina convincingly but lost to Germany. However this tournament was a round robin and India won it because they had six points. Though Germany was undefeated in all matches, they were held to draws against Spain and Argentina thus finishing with five points.