Bengaluru

Oct. 14: Following the disastrous Olympic hockey qualifier in March, the men’s team was hit by injuries, lack of form and many of them were dropped from the team. Most of the 48 probables picked by the ad-hoc committee have gone through one such setback at least over the last one year. But they are now back with renewed vigour.

The Indian men’s hockey team is all set to put the past behind them and start afresh. The first process towards the revival of Indian hockey began at the SAI, South Centre here on Tuesday.

The probables camp, a part of the Long Term Development Programme with 2010 as target, began under coach Harendra Singh. He is being assisted by Ramandeep Singh and goalkeeping coach Romeo James.

Of the 48 probables, 42 reported for the camp on the first day. While newly-wed Arjun Halappa has been exempted from the camp for 10 days, the other five, Bimal Lakra, Gurvinder Singh Chandi, Ignace Tirkey, S.V. Sunil and Kalu Ram are expected to join the camp next week.

Speaking to this newspaper after a practice session, Harendra said, “I’m very happy to see the mood in the camp. Despite going through a rough patch, the team morale is high. All the boys are oozing confidence and are eager too get back into the reckoning. This is clearly reflected in their body language.”

Harendra, who has coached many of the boys at the junior level, feels the right composition of the campers has made his job easy.

“The probables are a good blend of youth and experience. We want to give every player a fair chance. With a good set of players picked, 25 per cent of my job has been taken care of,” said the former international.

Harendra also added that the players will be subjected to physiological and biomechanics tests after which they will undergo specialised fitness regimes.

“This is something we will be trying for the first time. Players will be assessed for agility, endurance and speed. We will then formulate fitness routines for each of these players, depending on their requirement.”

The current camp will conclude on November 14, after which the players will represent their respective institutions/states in the Nehru Cup tournament. They will then head for a break from November 26-December 5, before getting back to the camp.

The venue for the second camp is yet to be decided.

“While the players are away from the camp they will be given fitness routines to follow. Once back, they will be assessed again and they have to meet the requirements to get back into the camp,” added the coach.

Harendra has set himself targets, which in his words are realistic goals.

“I have a big job on hand and we have set realistic targets. We want to reach at least the semifinals of the World Cup and the final in both the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games in 2010,” he said.

This camp marks the entry of Aldin D’Souza, Sunil Sonkar, Kalu Ram, Mazhar Kamal, Mohd Taj and Koushalender in to the senior camp. It has also provided a fresh lease of life to the careers of seasoned players like Halappa, Dilip Tirkey and Deepak Thakur.