With new belief, Indian hockey team is ready to face the Olympic challenge

Alok Sinha, TNN

NEW DELHI: There is a spring in Indian hockey’s step these days. The battered game, which sulked in a corner after every humiliation and snub in recent times, is learning to smile again. Hard work and determination are its best friends now; victory no more a beautiful dream. It’s up and about, ready and willing to challenge.

With the Olympic qualifying tournament beginning in New Delhi on Saturday, Indian men have been labelled favourites. They did not qualify for the Beijing Games in 2008 but London is very much on. Surely, getting past Canada, France, Poland, Italy and Singapore should not be that difficult.

One may argue that India are in a relatively easy pool but that’s not the point. There are no soft games in modern hockey, where top dogs get kicked around every now and then. The point is that this Indian team is looking different. They are playing different hockey and two Aussies from Perth have had a huge role to play in the turnaround.

Michael Jack Nobbs, the coach and David John, the physiotherapist have in just seven months given belief to the players and hockey followers that India can be world beaters.

The first thing Nobbs did was marry the Aussie way with the Indian system. He put stress on relentless attack – no back passes, please. This has taken some unlearning for the players coached in the European style by Nobbs’ predecessor Jose Brasa.

Nobbs’ philosophy is simple — attack even if you lose the ball and put pressure on the opponent to make mistakes. “Passing back is cowardice,” says Nobbs. Meet your rivals head on.

That has had a huge impact on the number of goals scored by the Indians of late. They scored 29 goals in just six matches in the Champions Challenge tournament in South Africa in December last year, at an impressive average of five per match. That should excite even the skeptics.

The other crucial change has come about in fitness. John the physio sounded rude when he first said that Indians were not “hockey fit”. They were not and he knew they would suffer while trying to sustain the pace in match conditions. He made them train according to game situations. That has added intensity to the Indian attacks.

John has admitted that the Indian are not as physically strong as the Aussies or the Kiwis but should be there by the time London comes calling.

Subtle changes have been made to their diets — goalkeepers have been asked to take in more carbohydrates while all players have been given coffee two hours before every training session. Well, the players have woken up and smelt it!

Nobbs also sent out a strong message: don’t take your place in the team for granted. He found former skipper Rajpal Singh, who had just returned from injury, off the ‘hockey fit’ mark and dropped him from the qualifiers team. He even put experienced forward Arjun Halappa on the standbys list. Both Rajpal and Arjun are quality players but if they don’t fit into Nobbs’ scheme of things, tough luck mate.

Nobbs has given a lot of young players opportunities, which is showing in their growth as thinking players. Outside right SV Sunil has been outstanding in recent times while Shivendra Singh has sizzled on his return from injury. The other forwards have also looked good.

In the midfield Sardar Singh is the king. He is probably the only player in this team who can walk into the World XI. Nobbs has changed his role from a defensive midfielder to an attacking playmaker, which has kept the attacks flowing.

Skipper Bharat Chetri has been solid in the goal while his understudy Sreejesh has also matured and settled down.

The problem lies in the defence. Sandeep Singh is a match-winner with his scorching drag flicks but not always rock-solid while defending. Rupinderpal Singh and VR Raghunath also need to work on their games. Former skipper Dileep Tirkey is spending crucial hours with them at the ongoing camp, which should do them a world of good.