‘Please don’t write off Indian hockey’
A. Vinod & M. R. Praveen Chandran

Dilip Tirkey.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Soft-spoken and suave, Dilip Tirkey is the antithesis of what he is when on the hockey field.

Be it an aggressive tackle or a mighty thump while taking penalty corners, the 31-year-old has always given his best for the country.

Making his debut as a gawky teenager in 1995, the Air-India employee is now one of the most capped players in the world and has seen the bright and dark days of Indian hockey in his 13-year-stint with the National team.

From winning the gold medal in the Bangkok Asian Games to the Olympic debacle, Dilip has witnessed both highs and lows in his career.

However, the pain of the Santiago debacle lingers.
Black day

In the city on a two-day tour, Dilip, who visited The Hindu office on Sunday, described the failure of the Indian team to qualify for the Beijing Olympics as one of the saddest days of his life. “Forever, it would remain a black day. As a player, I was obviously disappointed.

“I still cannot understand how badly we played as a team. It was not just one or two players who were having an off-day but the entire team which was totally off-colour in that needle match against Great Britain,” he added.

Many feel that India’s decline started in the 2006 Doha Asian Games when the team failed to win a medal for the first time. However, Dilip refuses to believe so.

“We had a bad day against China. We wasted about 11 to 12 penalty corners while the Chinese converted two out of the three or four they got. After Doha, we won the Asian championships and did well in the Azlan Shah and Champions Challenge hockey tournament. We had beaten the same British team before the Olympic qualifiers.”

“If you analyse our performance over the past few years, you can see that we have done well whenever we have had good drag flickers. We came second in the Azlan Shah tournament only because Sandeep Singh scored the goals.

“In 2003 and 2004 we did reasonably well when Jugraj Singh was in great form. He got injured in an accident and the team’s performance dipped. Sandeep’s accident also came at the wrong time. Things would have been different had he been fit,” added Dilip.
The former Indian captain, who has scored more than 50 goals in his international career mostly from short corners, felt that the game has become more physical and has opened up with the rule changes.

“Now defenders can block from both sides and players can use backhanders to score goals. Earlier, both were illegal. That is why we see less of field goals and more of penalty corners now. It is impossible to play hockey now when one is half-fit.”

Immediate goal

Dilip emphasised that it was time for Indian hockey to forget the past and move ahead. “Our immediate goal should be the 2010 World championships in New Delhi and the Asian Games. We definitely have the talent to make a comeback. The splendid performance of our juniors in the Asian championship recently is a sign of good things to come,” he said.

Steering clear of controversies that have surrounded Indian hockey for several months now, Dilip had just one request. “Please don’t write off Indian hockey. It is a sport in which we have a great legacy and given proper care, it still could bring back many more laurels to the country,” he said while winding up the nearly hour-long chat.