“Canada played the last Olympics, Don’t forget that”: Harendera

The Indian team is all set to play a marathon series of test matches
against the host Canada, with a few new faces in the squad.

some might argue that playing Canada will not benefit India in its
preparations for the forthcoming big events such as 2010 World Cup. But team’s assistant
coach Harendra Singh thinks otherwise.

“Canada has better ranking than us and were at the last Olympics, don’t forget that. Therefore,
it’s not a weak team. Also, playing away from home always benefits”
says Harendra.

The touring side rested some regulars like V.S. Vinaya and Ajitesh Roy — they are in the stand-by list — and they have made way for some junior players. Harendra
feels it’s the right step.

“See, this is going to be the last event before the Champions
Challenge, and we want to try a few new players. So this is the golden
chance for us to test the players like Danish Mujtaba, Amir Khan,
Sarvanjit Singh and Roshan Minz” explains Harendra.

However, it is worthwhile to note here Sarvanjit and Roshan are not exactly new, having already figured in various senior assignments last year.

“Since in the Champions Challenge, top six 6 teams will not be there, it makes sense to
try these players. For, we can’t play them directly against Germany
or Australia. If they do well there, we will continue with them
otherwise Vinaya and Ajitesh are always there itching to fill up the gap” Harendera reasons.

He sounded very confident about the team selection and the strategy.
According to him, the team management is looking to build a pool of at
least 28 players, keeping in mind the Commonwealth Games and World
Cup, and inclusion of junior players is a part of the over all pool-planning

As regards the criticims that the results of last Europe tour did not produce any good results, he said: “Yes, we didn’t do well in Europe. Because we just initiated our
build-up process for the future while our rivals were at their peak of preparations as the European championship was approaching. For us, it
was a learning curve and I feel we learnt plenty of things” says
Harendra.

“Another reason, I feel, was that we were not used to some new techniques we seek to introduce, plans and the equipments, things the new coach introduced now. Now we have to get used to them and no excuses will be tolerated at the big events” adds the confident coach.

Talking about the home World Cup, he avers, “I feel we can reach the
semi-finals of the World Cup. This team has the capability of doing
it. We have a few very good experienced players and we are trying a
number of young turks, so this team will be a good blend. Plus,
playing in your home country is always a big advantage, and looking at
the plans we are following, I am very confident that we will reach the
semis” says the former coach.

Hey, but hang on, just a few days back, his chief Brasa said not to
expect anything extra-ordinary at the World Cup and Commonwealth Games! So, isn’t
there a contradiction?

Harendra smiles. “We will surely do well. What football is to Brazil,
hockey is to India. We always want to do well in our national game and
will try our level best to achieve our goal. Brasa was a little
misunderstood. There must have been a communication-gap between him
and media” explains Brasa’s deputy.

On asked about the things they focused in the Pune camp, Harendra said, “We
emphasized on the neutral skills like stopping and hitting the ball.
These basics are really essential. Then a few special techniques, like
passing the ball looking up. We used to
train the boys in the day session, and used to watch their progress
during the match played in the evening. We worked really hard on the
basics and I am sure this camp and the Canada tour will add a lot to do well in
our target tournaments.