HYDERABAD: A.K. Bansal, India’s coach, said that it is a big shock to him to hear the reports that the India-Malaysia hockey match in the recent Azlan Shah Trophy championship is under a cloud over alleged match-fixing by the players from the host team.

In an interview with The Hindu on the sidelines of the on-going Indian junior camp for the forthcoming Asia Cup championship here from July 11 to 18, Bansal said, “It will be very sad that the whole episode takes the sheen away from the performance of my boys who played wonderful hockey to finish runner-up in the Azlan Shah tournament.

“No doubt it was a crucial match for us to qualify. But the fact that the Malaysians lost four matches before that and were a very ordinary team, is being conveniently forgotten,” he said.

“It certainly demoralises me to hear these reports — especially considering the fact that Indian hockey is looking up in recent months. Let me make it clear that we were not even aware of such a thing leave alone being part of the ugly controversy,” Bansal said.

No negative impact

Questioned whether the issue would have an impact on the Indian team training here (as more than 10 members of that Azlan Shah team are in the ongoing camp), Bansal replied in the negative. “The players seem to be least bothered by the controversy. But, what is of concern to me is the fact that the brilliant performance of the Indians in the Azlan Shah Trophy would be undermined for no fault of my boys. That is the saddest thing,” added Bansal.

Referring to the junior Asia Cup preparations, Bansal said that he had a vast pool of talent to choose from. The event also happens to be the qualifying tournament for the next Junior World Cup. “On June 28, we will be having the selection trials after which the team would be pruned to 18 players. Four stand byes will also be named,” he said.

“Since, India is the defending champion and the host, the pressure and expectations will be high. But, we are not much bothered about this. The focus is to keep improving in every area of the game,” the chief coach emphasised.

“The biggest advantage for us is that most of them have already played for the India seniors team. Next week, we are going to play some practice matches against local outfits in the run-up to the Asia Cup to help the players fine-tune their technique,” the coach said.

He also said that the presence of drag-flick expert Diwakar Ram should be a big plus for the host. Forwards Gurvinder Chandy, S.V. Sunil, Pramodh, Roshan Minz, Mandeep and midfielders Gurbaj Singh, Amardeepika, Vivek and Ranjith Singh were also capable of producing the results on their day.