Indian Team (M) for Rio: Bold team and bolder choice of leadership

Indian men’s team announced today has all the trappings of Dutch fox Rolent Oltmans. His penchant for physically strong players and importance to current form than stardom come to the fore as the Indian Rio team is announced in a grand function in which ruling party BJP President Amit Shah, Union Sports Minister Vijay Goel, cricket supremo Anurag Thakur inter alia were present.

First, leadership doesn’t mean seniority.

20 years before, Roelant Oltmans was in Chennai with the Dutch team. Jacques Brinkmann was the senior most, but the team leader was Stephen Veen. When asked the anomaly, he answered without wasting a second, ‘a leader is not comparative numbers’.

He relied on over all impact a player can make on the team, through his own form of course.

So, we have here last Olympics second goalie, Sreejesh is promoted to envious Olympic captain.

The mere fact that captaincy issue is being discussed is due to giving or taking it from Sardar Singh, speaks of his legacy, but bottomline for success is form nothing else.

Whatever other reasons concerning the leadership continuum of Sardar, an inform player, who was talk of hockey in every tournament that India played in the last two years, is given the honour to lead India at the Rio Olympics.

Well done Sreejesh, you deserve it and got it.

Second aspect that catches mind is inclusion of youngsters like Surender Kumar, Devinder Walmiki, SK Uthappa, Nikkin Thimmaiah.

Surender has shown tremendous form starting from this year’s Hockey India League.

He was given senior cap and emerged successful at Ipoh, London and Valencia this year.

Any European coach will go for any number of valuable defenders in the team, as they can easily fit into halfline too.

Harmanpreet Singh, calm and composed, also a new star got his deserving elevation. Jasjit Singh was gritty, and comes close to selection but Harmanpreet has better prowess at penalty corners.

India now has a problem of plenty at rear. Rupinder Pal Singh, V Raghunath besides the duo provide a strong defence plank.

Manpreet Singh, Devinder Singh, irresistible Sardar Singh lend solidity to midfield, with Danish Mujtaba, lucky to be selected considering his struggling form, lending extra hope.

Forwardline is a weak department for India. Barring SV Sunil, who was declared Vice-Captain, nobody commands wholesome selection on merit. Gurmail Singh, Mandeep Singh, Dharamvir Singh, Sarbhjit Singh got enough exposure; Lalit Updhyay and Affan Yousaff discarded long back.

Ramandeep Singh for his dash, despite his over-enthusiasm that results no goal, got the nod ahead of the likes of Talwinder Singh and Mandeep Singh. Its apparent the selected player counts better on physique and dash.

Akashdeep Singh must count his stars for making it, despite the fact that he was not a force as he was known for otherwise, in London.

Over all, it’s a bold decision to go for young blood and count on form rather than name.

This team selection is exactly this.