Indian hockey team see a silver lining

Pune: After an ordinary performance in the World Cup in March, Indian hockey team showed signs of improvement by retaining the Azlan Shah Cup title, albeit jointly with South Korea.

Barring the 2-5 loss against hosts Malaysia, India displayed good coordination and played as a unit and registered some comfortable wins over tough opponents such as Australia and Korea.

National coach Harendra Singh feels the win will boost the morale of the players ahead of important fixtures. “Though I do not think we played very badly in the World Cup, the Azlan Shah experience will be helpful for the team in the long run. We have the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games ahead which are very crucial for us. We hope to play well in the future too,” said Harendra.

He said that the team is improving with every match and going step-by-step.

“I think credit should first go to the players and then to the coaching staff, including chief coach Jose Brasa. We are happy that the boys played according to the strategy,” he added.

Not just Harendra, even the players praised Jose Brasa. Defender Dhananjay Mahadik said that the Spaniard’s coaching has helped the team reach another level.

“In Azlan Shah, we had chalked-out some strategies like playing Sardar Singh as fullback and I was positioned as the libero. This was something new for everybody, especially for our opponents and it worked well,” Mahadik said.

The team, which used to rely on a few names, now has many options and skipper Rajpal Singh said that this is a good sign.

“We have definitely improved after the World Cup. The team had some youngsters and it was good to see them play in a disciplined manner. The team is looking ahead towards becoming a team for the future,” said the skipper while talking to DNA.

Harendra echoed Rajpal’s views and said that the ultimate aim is to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics Games. “Our target is to qualify for the Olympics. We want to create a pool of players so that we can do well in the Commonwealth Games and then in the Asian Games. We want to maintain the momentum and do well in the future,” said the coach.