Hockey India Logo Released
Hockey India today released its Logo in a press conference in the presence of Indian hockey team and Hockey India officials. However, more than the logo, the issue got dominated the press conference in the posh The Lalit Delhi was in particular the reasons for the press conference to start very late.
“Better late than never”- everyone present at The Lalit must have thought so as the Hockey India press meet, which was scheduled to begin at 13 hrs started at around 18 ours.
The reason wasn’t less dramatic either. The Indian hockey team missed its flight from Pune for some strange reasons — it was really nice of them to reach the conference hall straight from the airport even with their cabin-baggage with them.
Ashok Kumar Matto, president of the Hockey India, promised to take strict action against the SAI official and the Kingfisher Airlines, who, according to him, were responsible for this delay.
Matto assured that the HI would do its best for the injured goalie Baljeet Singh, who is currently being treated at the AIIMS. He praised Md. Aslam Khan, the Secretary General of the HI, and the AIIMS for their positive approach in Baljeet’s case.
Matto’s admiration session didn’t end here. He expressed the view that he is lucky to have both Jose Brasa and Harendra Singh as the coaches, with the efforts of whom, HI would try to restore the glory of the Indian hockey.
When asked about the tour sponsors, he announced that Sahara, official sponsor hitherto, is not with the Indian team. (By the way, Sahara yesterday announced to sponsor the Indian archery team, in addition to wrestling and boxing which they already sponsor, Interesting!)
golf ball hit Baljeet Singh remained the hot topic throughout the conference. Chief coach Jose Brasa accepted that it was a blow to the team which is already missing the services of the ace defender, Dilip Tirkey but he didn’t seem worried as he had full faith in Adrian D’Souza and Sreejesh, although he couldn’t pronounce the latter’s name!
When asked about the coaching camp at Pune, Brasa sounded very impressed with the Indian players. “India has gems”, he said. But he also felt that 5 weeks was very little time and with more such camps and tours, he would be able to do something really good with the team.
He also insisted on using modern techniques in the game. But when a journalist queeried that the team is still waiting for the machines he wanted, Brasa laughed and then thanked Md. Aslam for giving him a video-camera from his own pocket, which, according to him, would be really useful during the tour.
The Spaniard said that the Europe-tour would be a good practice-ground for the coming world cup. He insisted that India should play more and more matches away from the sub-continent to learn more and improve more.
Brasa had all words of praise for his deputy, Harendra Singh. Harendra too, joined the mutual-admiration society, when asked about what he learnt from the foreign coach. “He has helped the team in improving the basics. He made the players to undergo some medical tests in order to test their fitness level, and it was really useful”, the deputy coach said.
“I wish all Indian coaches come Pune, see and learn on the basic aspects of the game”, Harandera said.
Then it was the skipper, Sandeep Singh, who was flooded with the questions, mainly regarding Baljeet Singh’s injury. Sandeep echoed the coach’s voice and said it was really unfortunate incident but they would not let it affect the team’s performance. Sandeep, from his personal experience, suggested that Baljeet to be mentally strong and positive for a speedy recovery.
The Shahbad-sensation didn’t look concerned about the weak defence in the absence of Baljeet and Dilip as he said that the team would play with one sweeper-back and the mid-field would bear the responsibility of defence.
The hour long press-conference started with the unveiling of the logo of the Hockey India, which is very similar to the Ashok-Chakr, and it ended with the good wishes to team. The Indian team, minus Sreejesh, left for Europe last night as the new goalie is yet to get his visa.
India will play total 12 tests against England, Belgium, The Nederlands and Spain. Apart from the mentioned personalites, Vidya Stokes, the vice-president; Narendra Batra, the treasurer of the HI also wished the Indian team good luck.