Very important year for us: Shivendra Singh

By Mihir Vasavda | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA

It’s an irony that India begin their quest to qualify for the London Olympics in a country that snatched the automatic spot from their grip.

Led by veteran Arjun Halappa, the new-look, and the inexperienced hockey team will travel to Malaysia — who beat India in the Asian Games semifinal last year — for the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, thus beginning an arduous 10-month calendar, which will culminate in New Delhi next February with the qualification tournament.

Coach Harendra Singh hopes to get a perfectly balanced side, which will help his side achieve the target of booking a London berth. Hence, it comes as little surprise that he, and the senior players of the side, are excited to play Azlan Shah with a bunch of youngsters without much experience.

The seven-nation tournament, which begins on May 5, will also include world champions Australia and European champions England, arch-rivals Pakistan, heavyweights South Korea, hosts Malaysia and New Zealand.

“It will be a challenge, no doubt,” says striker Shivendra Singh. “But it’s also an opportunity for us, as well as the youngsters. Azlan Shah is a highly competitive tournament and by playing against the best sides of the world, they can gain some invaluable experience.”

Without Rajpal Singh and Tushar Khandker, Shivendra will be without his usual strike partners. Joining him up front in their absence will be SV Sunil, who will be making a return after a long injury haul, Sarvanjit Singh and Gurwinder Singh Chandi.

“They will be missed. But I am looking forward to playing alongside Sunil, Sarvanjit and Chandi. There will be added responsibility on me, I realise that. But there is no pressure as such. In fact, I am excited to play in a tournament after nearly five months,” said Shivendra.

Reflecting on last year’s performance, Shivendra said the team shouldn’t be judged only on the basis of Asian Games result. “Of course, that left us with a sour taste. But overall, it was a pretty good year for us. We did extremely well in the tournaments prior to Asian Games and while not playing any matches, we were constantly training at Pune under (then coach) Jose Brasa, thus rectifying the grey areas,” he said.

Harendra, he believes, is taking it forward from where Brasa left. “We haven’t tried anything new yet. The fact that Harendra was with the team when Brasa was involved makes things simpler for us. We share a good rapport with him and that is crucial. This is an important year for us and all of us realise that making unnecessary changes will hamper our performance.”

Squad: Goalkeepers: Bharat Kumar Chetri; Adrian D’Souza. Defenders: Dhananjay Mahadik, Rupinder Pal Singh, Diwakar Ram. Midfielders: Gurbaj Singh, Vikas Pillay, Vikram Pillay, Arjun Halappa (capt), Ravi Pal, Danish Mujtaba, Vikas Sharma. Forwards: Shivendra Singh, SV Sunil, Mandeep Antil, Sarvanjeet Singh, Gurwinder Singh Chandi, Roshan Minz. Standby’s: PR Sreejesh, William Xalxo, Gurjinder Singh, Birendra Lakra, Preetinder Singh, Bikash Toppo