ERROL D’CRUZ

First up, New Zealand! Now, if you’ve been a follower of Indian hockey long enough, you’ll likely endure the jitters as the teams open their campaign at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Saturday. You don’t have to go too far back. Just last year, India played the Black Sticks in their backyard in the quest to make the World Cup quarterfinals but beaten in a shootout at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.

It dashed India’s soaring hopes of adding to the Olympic bronze won at Tokyo two years prior and resulted in a shake-up of the management that culminated in the exit of Graham Reid, the Australian head coach.

New Zealand are tough customers. They may not consistently feature in the top bracket but they’re hard to beat and can put it across even the best of the best on their day. India can draw heart from the Tokyo campaign, however. A 3-2 win over the Kiwis in the opener went a long way to help Manpreet Singh’s team make the quarterfinals, especially after a brutal 1-7 defeat against Australia in the next match.

Over half a century ago, India opened against New Zealand in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. That, however, was a different story. India, seven-time gold medallists at the time, suffered only their second defeat in the Olympics after Pakistan pulled off a 1-0 win in the 1960 Rome final.

New Zealand won 2-1 to hint at things to come. Although the Black Sticks failed to make the semi-finals despite being unbeaten in the pool phase, New Zealand hockey was to come of age eight years later at Montreal in 1976.

After giving India a run for their money at Munich in 1972 – going down 2-3 in a revenge of sorts by India – New Zealand snatched the gold medal at the epoch-making event four years later.

The first-ever Olympic hockey tournament to be played on an artificial surface threw up one surprise after another. So much so that New Zealand, the gross underdogs against their illustrious neighbours Australia, sustained the bizarre trend to upstage their Oceania rivals 1-0 and register their greatest achievement in the sport. The outcome rankles Australia to this day.

It was one of the grittiest, tenacious and determined displays of all time by a resourceful team but it belied the talent at their disposal exemplified by arguably the best Kiwi hockey player of all time. His name: Ramesh Patel. Ramesh’s sublime skills were a treat to watch. The forward was the epitome of New Zealand’s Indian factor that has held the Black Sticks in good stead down the ages.

New Zealand Hockey CEO in later years, Ramesh missed a penalty stroke in the final but that did not detract from his influence on the team in a nerve-wracking campaign that saw the Kiwis win protracted battles against The Netherlands (semi-finals) and Spain (play-off) en route to the final after enduring a 2-5 loss to Pakistan.

Another player of Indian origin joined Ramesh on the top podium – Mohan Patel, not related – and it must surely have been some soothing balm for Indian fans after their team was battered and bruised in an infamous campaign that saw the once-invincible finish seventh. The Patels’ exploits inspired a spate of Indian-origin players who were to represent New Zealand with aplomb. Peter Daji, Umesh Parag, Arun Panchia and Jared Panchia are some of those to represent the Black Sticks with distinction.

How did New Zealand develop a hockey pedigree? Thank the Wizard Dhyan Chand and his Indian Army teammates who toured the country in 1926 and won the hearts of the sporting public. Further tours by an Indian team in 1935 and a Prince of Manavadar’s team in 1938 struck a chord with fans in New Zealand and set the tone for New Zealand’s eminence in time to come.

The Kiwis have often been a thorn in India’s flesh in global major tournaments.

The Black Sticks threatened to deprive India of a semi-final spot in the 1973 World Cup in Amsterdam by forcing a 1-1 draw against MP Ganesh’s side. They took a shock 1-0 lead, the first goal conceded by India after 267 minutes play in the tournament at that point, and it took a substitute’s rescue act in the shape of a Baldev Singh (replacing Surjit Singh) penalty corner strike to salvage a vital point.

New Zealand then pushed India down the ladder at the 1986 World Cup in London with a 2-1 win in a classification match to set the scene for an unbelievable wooden spoon encounter against arch-rivals and three-time holders Pakistan.

New Zealand proved a handful for top teams in the 1970s. They finished runners-up in the Christchurch International tournament to Pakistan in 1974 but upstaged The Netherlands on the way. The Dutch were the reigning World Cup champions at the time and were to suffer another setback to the Kiwis at the 1975 Kuala Lumpur World Cup, both by 1-2 scorelines.

After the epic 1976 Olympic gold medal triumph, wonderfully encapsulated in Striking Gold, a book by Suzanne McFadden, New Zealand hockey suffered a sudden cruel blow.

The trip to the 1978 Buenos Aires World Cup was aborted because of a paucity of funds and many analysts cite that for New Zealand’s dip in fortunes in the years that followed. The US-led 1980 Moscow Olympic boycott deprived the Black Sticks the chance to defend their title and extended their hiatus from a major global event.

The Black Sticks were dealt another blow 10 years later. There was no Olympic qualification tournament in existence and New Zealand were not given a spot at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Disgruntled Kiwi fans expressed angst at India’s invitation to hockey’s pinnacle event despite the eight-time gold medallists finishing with the wooden spoon at the preceding World Cup.

Their protests did not fall on deaf ears. They missed Seoul but the FIH realised it was high time that an Olympic qualifying tournament be created and the first-ever transpired befittingly in Auckland in 1991.

A huge controversy erupted at Athens 2004 where India, after losing a pool match 1-2 with a goal in the final minute, lodged a protest. India, expectedly lost the protest, the appeal that followed and were $1,000/- poorer. A Kiwi official later said he’d rather not have protested if it was his team and used the money saved for development of the game!

If ever there was a chance to emulate the spirit of 1976, it arrived in Rio 2016. Sadly for the Kiwis, a late rearguard by Germany saw a 0-2 deficit overturned with the match-winner scored 1 second from the hooter.

The crest-fallen Black Sticks were inconsolable after coming so close to making the semi-finals where they would face Argentina – a team they would have backed themselves to win going by recent records.

New Zealand braved a disruption of training and competition during the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the perennial disadvantage of Geographical isolation to remain competitive.

After being relegated from the FIH Pro League, the Black Sticks have re-entered the fray after winning the Nations Cup in Gniezno, Poland, where they pipped France in a shootout in the final.

The Kiwis also ensured their presence in Paris with a hard-fought 3-2 win over Pakistan in Muscat, Oman, after trailing in the last quarter in a qualifying tournament.

If New Zealand are to make the quarterfinals, much depends on their stalwarts Simon Child (307 caps), Blair Tarrant (267), Hugo Inglis (261) and Kane Russel (211).

And much hinges on the opening encounter at the Yves-du-Manoir stadium against India who, one suspects, haven’t forgotten the fateful World Cup cross-over encounter at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar last year.