Rajpal plays down Azlan Shah win, says CWG, Asian Games real test

“It is not a big win, I must say. I am not very happy, surely,” said the skipper, who returned to his home here today morning. Elaborating, he said, “If we are happy that means we are satisfied and this ‘satisfaction’ factor, we can not afford seeing the two big tournaments — Commonwealth Games-2010 (CWG) and Asian Games — ahead this year. For me the tournament was just a warm-up exercise.”

However, Rajpal termed the win against World Champion Australia during their journey to the cup as the most important development there. “The win has boosted the morale of the team manifold, which would definitely prove beneficial during the CWG. Being placed in one pool along with Pakistan and Malaysia in CWG, we will face Australia in the league matches and the win will definitely play a vital role”, he added.

He also said this time they had changed their strategy while taking on the world champions. “Like them (Australia) we played an attacking game and also focused on more possession, which paid off”, said Rajpal while adding that two days after the match they came to know that the win against Australia was registered after seven years. On the disastrous performance in recent World Cup at Delhi, Rajpal said the team had forgotten it. The skipper also expressed his happiness over the performance of young players including Ravi Pal and Vikas Pillay at Ipoh.

On being asked whether the team missed drag flicker Sandeep Singh, Rajpal said, “If you lose, only then such things come to mind. Undoubtedly, Sandeep is a top class player. But in modern hockey, I think one drag flicker is enough in one team. During World Cup, we had three flickers in comparison of one in Holland and Australia and both the team finished as top scorers there.” However, the skipper feels that the team needs to work on their defense line.