Players and coaches celebrate Bangkok triumph’s 10th anniversary

BANGALORE: It was a team that comprised of ‘over-the-hill’ players, a team that had got the Indian Hockey Federation’s goat only because it had re
alised the virtues of collective effort. And, it was the team that endured several pitfalls before it reached Bangkok. This was Team India which won the 1998 Asiad hockey gold.

Thirty-two years was too a long time for anyone in that group to even remember India’s previous Asiad triumph in 1966. For that matter, none of the players was born then. Yet, when the moment dawned on them at the Queen Sirikit stadium, it was nostalgia that flowed. Bangkok had seen India create history yet again. And, as the same pages of history tell us, it wasn’t a smooth ride.

It was a year when the country had plummeted to the eighth position in the Utrecht World Cup. The Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur saw them hit another roadblock with the semifinal loss to Malaysia. The customary hack-and-sack methods of the IHF only added to the woes before one man decided he would have to take control.

“I was the IHF’s coaching committee chairman then,” said former India captain MP Ganesh. “When the IHF asked me to choose a coach to succeed V Baskaran, I opted for MK Kaushik.” Kaushik’s entry was marked by derision and distrust. The first comment as he went about choosing players – including Sandeep Somesh and goalkeepers Ashish Ballal and AB Subbaiah, who had announced his retirement after he was dropped for the World Cup – was that he was putting together a dad’s army.

But the resolve that Kaushik showed in standing by these players was admirable. “Kaushik came to my house to request me to return to hockey,” says Subbaiah. “I had quit in disgust. But the coach was so earnest that I couldn’t say no.”

Then came the task of team building. Training at SAI South Centre was an unmixed blessing as Ganesh was in direct charge. Each aspect was taken care of. More importantly, the seniors were an integral part of strategising, leading to ideas that actually worked and a happy situation where the players were made to feel wanted. “It was one of the best teams I have played for,” says Ashish Ballal. “There are plenty of happy memories. I wouldn’t say there were no differences of opinion but that only helped in making us sharper. The rivalry was intense but positive. Each goal scored by one player only pushed the other to get another. All this was made possible only because we had Kaushik. He was too keen that we felt and stayed united. There was his personal touch to the team-building efforts.”

This, coupled with tense moments when skipper Dhanraj Pillay came perilously close to being ejected from the camp after run-ins with the team management added enough spice to hockey lore.

“The league phase was easy. I would say beating Korea twice in the tournament (in the league and in the final) was a great achievement,” Sandeep said.

In the final, Kaushik brought two major changes in the roles of Md Riaz and Sandeep. Riaz, the inside right, was asked to control the midfield while Sandeep, the central midfielder, was asked to mark Korean marauder Song Seung-Tae. “I wasn’t very happy at my own decision. But Sandeep was a player always ready to adapt to the coach’s needs,” says Kaushik. “As a centre-half, Sandeep was always a constructive player. But I wanted him to play destructive hockey on that day by shadowing Song. He did it beautifully.”

The 1-1 score line at extra-time and Ballal’s two heroic saves in the shootout are still discussed in hockey circles but what is not mentioned in the same breath is the ‘stunner’ that a nervous Mukesh Kumar managed in the fourth push. Aiming at the roof of the net, he lunged forward only to prod the ball to bounce harmlessly on the turf towards the goal. Apparently, the anti-climax caught the South Korean goalkeeper on the wrong foot!

“Quite a contrast, if you compare the way Ballal and Subbaiah studied video tapes of the Korean penalty strokes and the way many of our players, including Dhanraj, shied away from the penalty shootout. In the end, the four who volunteered – Riaz, Dhillon, Ramandeep and Mukesh – delivered,” said Kaushik.