New Indian Express: Post Junior WC triumph, wait and watch should be Oltmans mantra

By Swaroop Swaminathan

LUCKNOW: The mark of a great team, we have been told many times, is not their ability to win the first title. It is in repeating the same thing again and again.

Harjeet Singh, who will replace Sardar Singh in the senior team sooner rather than later, indicated they were ready to accomplish it. He, in fact, promised to do so.

“I promise you, we will win more tournaments for India,” was his statement after he helped the hosts win the Junior World Cup on Sunday.

Reading between the lines, it’s not hard to come to the conclusion that he believes many from this team will be called up to the senior squad when the national camp commences in March after the completion of Hockey India League (HIL).

However, coach Roelant Oltmans and Co. will have to tread carefully. Too much, too soon need not necessarily have the desired results. The last time something like this happened in Indian hockey, it bombed. India won the Junior World Cup in 2001 and more than half-a-dozen were handed senior debuts. Seven of them went to the senior World Cup in 2002 only to finish 10th.

There’s no hard and fast rule about how best to approach integration, but looking at the Germans will offer a few clues. Why? They have won this tournament six times and have always known when to infuse fresh blood into the senior squad.

“It doesn’t work like that (bringing all junior players and handing them debuts),” Germany coach Valentin Altenburg says. “The important thing is that senior players can learn from youngsters. Kids also learn because they get to watch from close quarters how to prepare for a big match and so on.”

One suspects the likes of Gurjant Singh (apart from the trio of Harjeet, Mandeep Singh and Harmanpreet Singh who have already visited the top step) will get his chance to prove his worth in 2017. He possesses the right physique and understands the art of defending, two key traits the Germans look in players before graduation day.

“I think if you are good in defending and have the right physique you are ready to move,” the 35-year-old Altenburg says. “Most of the junior players won’t have everything. Some will be technically proficient, others will be good defenders and so on. So you tend to use these tournaments to essentially see which players will be ready to play at the highest level in a few years’ time.”

Oltmans isn’t prone to handing out debuts like chocolates at a candy store and he made that much clear when he spoke to the media a day before the tournament began.

“If they do well, they have a chance and all of them know that,” he had said. “At the moment our only focus is on helping these boys show their qualities.”

They have definitely exceeded expectations and what happens in their next phase of development will form a crucial subplot as the management decides on a core group for the 2018 World Cup.