S2H Team

“These matches are very important. We cannot underestimate either team. We will know where we stand in an important year. And we want to win every match.” Thus spoke Indian men’s hockey team captain Manpreet Singh, ahead of the trip to South Africa where India play the hosts and France in the FIH Pro League campaign starting on February 8.

.Manpreet Singh reflected on a new start in an important year. “Besides the FIH Pro League, we have the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games later this year and the World Cup next year,” said the Indian captain and midfielder par excellence in a virtual media conference along with Head Coach Graham Reid on Friday.

“Besides, After winning the 2020 Tokyo Olympic bronze bronze medal, every team will aim to beat us. We aim to enjoy each challenge and that will raise our chances of winning. The important thing is giving our 100 percent in every match,” the Indian captain said.

He affirmed sticking to the Covid safety protocol. “The more disciplined we are in this respect the better it will be when it comes to performances and meeting the challenges to come,” said the Indian captain.

Reid concurred. “We want to make sure the protocol is covered. But something like Omicron is something that can slip through despite all that,” the Australian said. “Of paramount importance is to accept challenges and get the athletes to full training and competition as quickly as possible.” “We have to trust all protocols the FIH and South African authorities have put in place,” Reid added.

“Besides, our boys are coping with the situation very well. Especially isolating themselves in their room. They’ve accepted things and are moving on. “We try to make selections so as to include flexible players in case of a changed scenario,” Reid said.

Questions concerned the squad to South Africa and inevitably focussed on two debutants – Jugraj Singh (namesake of the legend who also plied the lethal trade in the early 2000s) and Abhishek – and Reid’s response elicited hope and excitement.

“Jugraj is versatile. A good midfielder/defender and a quick drag-flicker. We, however, must get him to be more consistent on where he wants to put those drag-flicks. Abhishek is a striker who likes scoring goals and did so in the Nationals. It’s always good to have a new influx into the group,” Reid added.

Manpreet said of the duo, “They have fighting spirit and are excellent players. Abhishek is good in the D and passes very well. Jugraj is a good drag-flicker with a unique action. He is also a midfielder and defender and is a useful player to any coach.”

Reid was drawn into commenting on midfielder Simranjeet Singh who excelled at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics but is now recovering from an injury. “Simranjeet is making good progress from injury and we want to make him get it right before we push him into action.

Should there have been more debutants pitch-forked into action? Especially since the opposition is South Africa and France and not higher-ranked teams? Reid replied: “We are taking each match seriously and giving an opportunity to those at the Olympics rested a chance to get back into the frame.”

About the opposition, Reid had this to say: “South Africa are coming from the Olympics on the back of good performances against Germany who they beat and The Netherlands who they troubled. We will have some video to look at.

“France’s choice of players will be interesting. We would like to see how many of the junior players who excelled at the Junior World Cup will feature in the squad. “They will pose a challenge as they’d want to prove they belong to the top group of nations and will be coached by Fred Soyez who coached Spain till recently,” Reid elaborated.

On PR Sreejesh, rested for the Asian Champions Trophy in December, now coming back into the team, Reid said: “You can’t have a player like him playing for so long who hasn’t been open to new ideas, changes, development and continual improvement.

“I had a good chat to him about areas to improve. I told him most importantly he must have the same drive. The same thing I said to Jamie Dwyer (Australian legend) in the latter part of his career.

“He constantly wants to get better and he gets that great thing to the group,” Reid said.

About Manpreet, Reid said: “There’s competitiveness in him. He brings that into the game. He’s more of a leader by example. To be totally honest, it’s more about holding him back and have him keep working and moving the ball around. We could well now see the next level of Manpreet’s game.”

On the 3-5 semi-final defeat to Japan in the Asian Champions Trophy in Dhaka last month, Reid said he hated the moment but there was much to learn from that. “Things like that happen when we don’t treat every single game with the utmost importance,” Reid said.

This will be India’s second essay in the elite FIH Pro League. On debut, last year, they finished fourth in a pandemic-truncated league decided on percentages. Answering a question about the edge India would have over the Europeans who grapple with the club vs country debate precipitated by the FIH Pro League, Reid responded: “India have a slight advantage over the Europeans in that we don’t have a club programme to deal with. So do Australia and Argentina who like India have centralized contracts.

“But there are also cons to that, especially when you consider that we are linked to the rest of the world as far as when we have to play,” he reasoned.

A long grind awaits the team. Almost every weekend till April there will be games. Reid commented on this, saying, “The load and the capacity to handle it is important and there’s where the support staff come in.”

That led Reid to comment on the new scientific advisor, his compatriot Mitchell Pemberton.

“He’s hit the ground running. And certainly he has to be on the ball for the next few months. But we have a good, deep squad and we must make sure we pick the best team and improve all the way, especially with the Asian Games coming,” Reid said.

“It’s not an easy job and the previous scientific advisor Robin Arkell (of South Africa, now with Rugby 7’s) in Germany) did a great deal for the team.”