Iran has no turf, but has confidence to match their indoor fame
“We are Asian Indoor hockey Champions. Why can’t we be then the same in the open field variety too?”
This is the confidence with which the Iranian hockey is here in Malacca.
Iran is the new thing here in the Junior Asia Cup. Iran’s presence is interesting against the backdrop of traditional outfits like Singapore, Bangladesh and Hong Kong shunning the most important of Asian Hockey Federation’s own engagements.
Iran thus brings a whiff of fresh air into the otherwise stagnated field.
“Our problem is field, the synthetic one. Even now we don’t have single synthetic open field of hockey in Iran. We will be getting four of them next year, each for one province. There may even be more in the coming years. With this, the hockey scenario of our country will change” asserts Safaei Esfandyar, the team’s coach here.
“Hockey is in the Olympic Games. Our Olympic Committee therefore wants this sport to come up and compete”.
“We have 16 teams in the A Division and 10 in the B, though most of them are regular in the indoor games”, he adds.
Iran’s return to field hockey started last year when they decided to take part in the AHF Cup in Hong Kong. Iran surprisingly won the bronze there after defeating Singapore in the concerned play off.
13 out of the 18 players who played in Hong Kong are here in Malacca, showing signs of continuity as well.
“Our program actually started with 60 boys in 2011, they are now progressing”.
Iran is not unduly disturbed by the reputation of other teams, and they even don’t care because they could neither watch any videos of the other teams’ games or the team is aware of the past history.
Interestingly, exuberant Iran has not been run over by any team here unlike Sri Lanka for instance.
The new team face the scoring problem as the team has struck so far only once, that was against the hosts in the league.
The coach, who is on a learning mission, outlined the purpose of his visit.
“First we want to be familiar with the rules and regulations of the game. I am sure we got adequate first hand knowledge of it here. Secondly, how to play on the standard pitch? Third point is to understand and familiarize with popular tactics. And the last is to understand how far we are away from the established teams”.
“I don’t think we are far away from the rest. Not too far at all We are only inexperienced. Once we start participating in various tournaments we will bridge the gap, and this is possible”, he oozes confidence.
“We certainly has ability to count. We defeated South Korea 7-0 in the latest indoor Asian Championship. So, we don’t lack in confidence. We have the problem of equipment, problem of turf; once the things are set right, we will do our best to perform on level with other hockey nations.
Knowledgeables here feel the team is fit, but raw, lack in techniques like always flat stick tackles etc. At the same time they also concede Iran is the team to watch.
One great thing is, their players are excited about the open field variety.
“Its new for them. They get more space to play. They are happy, and are excited” signs off Safaei Esfandyar.
The player enthusiasm is a good news for Asian hockey fraternity.