Indian Express: Junior Hockey World Cup: India colts want to be kings in City of Nawabs

By Mihir Vasavda

Junior World Cup will provide proper assessment of the next generation and whether they have the ability to challenge the current lot.

At 7.40pm on Wednesday, the Dhyan Chand Stadium disappeared in thick mist. Minutes before, South Korea and Holland had finished a practice match in very poor visibility. By the time they began their post-match cool-down drills, the fog became so dense that the players could barely see each other on the field.

Fog has been an unwelcome guest every evening here for the last one week. So much so that visibility, or the lack of it, has pushed everything else surrounding the junior World Cup into the background. With matches, on some days, scheduled at 10am and 8pm, fog is a genuine concern (India play every match under lights). And the International Hockey Federation (FIH) is already putting a contingency plan in place and has kept the possibility of rescheduling the matches open.

It’ll be a shame if poor visibility does affect play. For if the fog lifts, we will get to see if the future of Indian hockey seems as promising as the present. The last 18 months have been the most stable for Indian hockey in a long time. Under master tactician Roelant Oltmans, the spunk has returned and they have occasionally played with flair that had earlier gone missing. As the team enters a new Olympic cycle, a few changes in the playing group will be inevitable.

Oltmans, who signed an extension till the 2020 Olympics earlier this week, has already said there will be a new core group of players when the team reassembles in March after the Hockey India League. The next 12 days will provide proper assessment of the next generation of players and whether they have the ability to challenge the current lot for a place in the senior national team.

The previous junior World Cup, in 2013, saw the emergence of Manpreet Singh. He had already established himself in the senior team but the World Cup further enhanced his reputation and by the time the Rio Olympics came around, he had displaced Sardar Singh as the centre-half – perhaps the most important position on the field.