Sultan Azlan Shah hockey tournament: Familiar terrain for Team India, but a different challenge in store
By Swaroop Swaminathan
CHENNAI: Argentina? Olympic champions and World No 2. Australia? World champions and World No 1. India couldn’t have asked for two bigger tests to kickstart their Sultan Azlan Shah campaign ahead of what is likely to be the biggest nine months for most players — Commonwealth Games, a likely Champions Trophy sojourn, Asian Games followed by a World Cup at home.
To tackle those tests, the management has given a chance to 36 players since the Asia Cup last October (only one, Varun Kumar, has been picked for all four meets under Dutch coach Sjoerd Marijne). In the year’s first tourney — invitational 4-Nations meet in New Zealand — the Men In Blue handed debuts to four players. In a continuing theme, three more have been called up for the first time at Ipoh. But the challenge for Marijne in Malaysia is fairly different to what his immediate predecessors faced.
The likes of Roelant Oltmans used Azlan Shah to build a group ahead of tests at the end of the season. Marijne will have to use it to identify his best among the rest (regulars like PV Sreejesh, captain Manpreet Singh and drag-flicker Harmanpreet Singh have been rested).
Apart from identifying youngsters and peripheral players who will form the core group between now and the end of the year, there is a possible Sardar-shaped headache that Marijne will have to contend with. If a few reports are to be believed, this is going to be the former captain’s last meet. His captaincy, if speculation is anything to go by, was a golden handshake arranged by HI.
When Express asked Marijne if there is a grain of truth in those reports, the 43-year-old coach was taken aback. “Rubbish. We sit through and watch the performances of all the core probables and it’s the same with Sardar. Why not pick (him) when he is good? Young, old, new… it doesn’t matter. If performances are good, they will play.”
That’s the other thing that has made headlines — Marijne’s supposed proclivity to picking youngsters over senior figures. It’s a charge he refutes. “I think that’s a misunderstanding. There is a perception that we are only after young players. That’s not true. We are after good players. Just because the team has a few youngsters doesn’t mean I don’t like seniors.”
One quality he hoped the team will show — and continue to develop — is ‘consistency’. That’s been a bugbear but Marijne, who is happy with the responsibility the team has shown since moving to a player-driven approach, is hopeful. “They showed it in New Zealand. Now the challenge is to replicate that all the time.”
Will the coach’s call to arms bear any fruit? Friday’s opener will offer more proof.