The Hindu: Format shouldn’t undermine HWL feat, says Raghunath

9 Dec 2015

By Rohan Alvares

MUMBAI: You wouldn’t expect the high of being part of the first Indian team to win a medal at an FIH event in 33 years to die down anytime soon. And when you have experienced the heartbreak of narrowly missing out on a medal in successive Champions Trophy events, as both VR Raghunath and Dharamvir Singh have, the joy of Sunday’s dramatic Hockey World League penalty-shootout win over the Dutch is bound to last a good while.

“We lost the third-fourth playoff in Melbourne (against Pakistan) in 2012 and last year too (against Australia) in Bhubaneswar. On both occasions we had missed out,” Raghunath said in a chat with TOI on Tuesday . “To have finished with the medal this time is something we are really proud of. We definitely had prepared well for this tournament.”
It so nearly could have ended up in agony once again when an extravagant reverse hit by young Akashdeep Singh only served to hand back possession to Netherlands in the dying seconds who went on to equalise from a penalty-corner and force the tie into the tiebreaker. “It was important to hold the ball at the time,” Dharamvir admitted. “The coach had told us in our team meetings that in such situations, you need to keep an eye on the clock if you are in the lead and play accordingly.”

If Raghunath’s goal in the 2012 Champions Trophy third-fourth playoff against Pakistan went in vain, Dharamvir’s effort in the eventful semifinal of the 2014 edition also ended up on the losing side, again at the hands of their fierce rivals. The relief in Dharamvir’s tone was thus evident as he reflected on the champagne moment at Raipur.
“Not that this wipes away the disappointment we felt at losing to Pakis tan, especially last year in front of our home fans, but this is a big confidence booster,” he said, adding: “It’s a great way to help us understand where we stand before the Olympics. We’ll be watching videos of these matches to address our weaknesses and try to further improve as a team.”

The format of the Hockey World League Final had raised eyebrows with all eight sides already assured of their entry into the quarterfinals. India, in fact, had finished bottom of their group, with losses to Argentina and Netherlands and a draw against Germany.

But Raghunath saw no reason for India’s medal-winning feat to be undermined.”It doesn’t’ matter what the format is. If we had won all our group matches and lost in the quarterfinals, then too we’d have been criticized the next day. So whatever the stage, quarters or semis, you still had to prove your worth against the best sides,” he said.
There was not a great deal of time for Raghunath and Dharamvir to celebrate India’s glory though.Being part of the Indian Oil side competing in the Dabang Mumbai 50th Bombay Gold Cup tournament which began at the Mahindra Stadium here on Monday didn’t afford them that luxury.

And if they were feeling the effects of any fatigue from the journey from Raipur to Mumbai, let alone an absorbing campaign, it certainly wasn’t visible as Dharamvir’s hat-trick led the way for Indian Oil’s 8-4 rout of Mumbai Customs in their Pool D opener on Tuesday.

Results: Pool D: Indian Oil 8 (Dharamvir Singh 2nd, 12th, 35th, Roshan Minz 17th, Deepak Thakur 18th, S K Uthappa 43rd, Gurjinder Singh 65th, 66th) beat Mumbai Customs 4 (Harjeet Singh 39th, Vikram Singh 51st, 58th, Navneet Swarnakar 60);Pool A: Central Railway 4 (Affan Yusuf 15th, 63rd, Narad Bahadur 44th, Yuvraj Walmiki 56th) beat Army XI 2 (Chandan Aind 25th, Pawal Lakra 33rd).