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| SPORTS TRIBUNE |
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Half the battle won
IN THE NEWS
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Olympic berth at stake
Though India have had to go through the qualifying rigmarole to make the Olympic grade in the past too, this is perhaps the first time that they would be waging a do-or-die battle for an Olympic berth in the final qualifying tournament. The eight-time Olympic champions, now ranked a miserable ninth in the FIH order of merit, have never missed an Olympic berth since 1928, and it will be a great loss of face if they crash out of the qualifier in Chile. Though teams like Great Britain, Russia, Mexico, Austria and Chile are not formidable forces on paper, they all somehow come up with their best displays when they clash with India. This time, India perceive Britain, ranked one rung above them in the world, as their strongest challengers. The computer-savvy Indian players have been closely watching Britain’s matches in the Champions Challenge and Champions Trophy to get a hang of their game and to chalk out strategies. The Asia Cup champions could have avoided this nerve-wracking experience, had they picked up at least a silver in the Doha Asian Games last year. The stunning loss to eventual champions China put paid to India’s hopes of making an automatic qualification to the Beijing Olympics, though they have improved quite a lot since then, having won the Asia Cup in Chennai and taken a good measure of Belgium in the run-up to the Olympic qualifier. India also had a hectic training session and match practice in Perth (Australia) and Bangalore before leaving for Santiago. Coach Joaquim Carvalho will have to use all his ingenuity, experience and tactical skills to see India successfully through the qualifying competition, though he will have the sound counsel of technical adviser Rick Charlesworth to fall back on. The Aussie Olympian’s hockey credentials are not open to question, and his inputs will make a great difference to India’s game plan. Though India have picked the best available talent for the Chilean competition, the omission of drag-flicker Sandeep Singh is a surprise and a mystery. Sandeep was very much in contention for a place in the national team till the title round of the Premier Hockey League in Chandigarh. But after the PHL finals, he informed the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) that he would not be available for the national camp in Bangalore. Though Rajpal Singh also raised a banner of revolt, he later resolved his “differences” with Carvalho, to be now a major cog in the Indian attack. Carvalho will be looking up to Prabhjot Singh, who was the top scorer in the Asia Cup, to inflict deadly blows on rival teams. Former Indian captain Ajitpal Singh, hero of India’s only World Cup triumph in 1975 at Kuala Lumpur, has cautioned that India would find the going “tough, very tough.” “It’s not going to be easy beating teams like Great Britain, Russia, Chile and Mexico. Chile have the reputation of upsetting the likes of Argentina, and Mexico play such a defensive game that it will be very tough to score goals against them. I still remember the hard time we had against Mexico in the 1972 Munich Olympics. It’s an open competition,” averred Ajitpal. Ajitpal was also surprised at Sandeep’s exclusion from the squad. “Though no coach will leave behind a good player, and Carvalho has picked the best players available, if I were the coach, I would have certainly had Sandeep in the team, more so because he has been drag-flicking very well of late.” Yet, under the circumstances, India have a balanced team, having had a sound grounding in the run-up to the qualifier. India will be banking on Prabhjot, Rajpal, feeder Sardana Singh and drag-flickers Diwakar Ram and Ajitesh Rai to knock in the goals. Veteran defender Dilip Tirkey is also good at getting goals from set pieces, and Carvalho really has an eclectic mix here. For, Dilip also carries the experience of three Olympics, which will be a great value addition to India’s tactical ploys. Though injured custodian Adrian D’Souza has been replaced with Bharat Chetri, Carvalho is likely to pick the agile and crafty Baljit Singh as his first-choice goalie. The defence looks solid with seasoned campaigners like Dilip and William Xalco in charge, and B.R. Raghunath and Diwakar adding punch to their efforts. Gurbaj Singh, Bimal Lakra, Ignace Tirkey, captain Prabodh Tirkey and Vikramkanth will be a very formidable lineup in the midfield, while the attack will be solidified by Shivendra Singh and Tushar Khandekar. India will have to be on their guard in all matches, lest they slip up and hurtle out of Olympic contention, which will only bring peril to the already dwindling fortunes of Indian hockey.
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Half the battle won
When a bunch of young and, by their own admission, “still inexperienced” Indian cricketers landed in Australia for the Twenty20 match and the ODI tri-series, nobody gave them a realistic chance of faring well. The thrashing that the team suffered in the T20 game confirmed the skeptics’ fears.
After two matches were washed out, the Men in Blue tasted victory by beating Australia at the MCG. Then they lost one match each to Sri Lanka and Australia. The next game against Sri Lanka went to the last over as India pulled off a thriller. Their last group match against the hosts at Sydney showed the fighting spirit of a youthful team, as they came within striking distance of the huge Australian total despite reeling at 159-5 at one stage. The last group match against Sri Lanka became a must-win game and India needed its big guns to fire. They did exactly that with a commanding victory, overhauling the modest Sri Lankan total of 179 with almost 18 overs to spare. However, India’s entry into the best-of-three finals should not be regarded as a major achievement. World Cup runners-up Sri Lanka played much below par in the tournament and deserved to be knocked out. Team India’s mettle will be put to the test in the finals against the Australians beginning tomorrow. All the verbal banter and provocation by the home team would count for nothing, if….only if the Indians can beat them. So who are India’s gladiators as this young team prepares for a baptism by fire? The two most deserving candidates are the “Delhi Boys” — Ishant Sharma and Gautam Gambhir. Ishant has been labelled the find of the tour for the Indian team and he has more than justified that tag by treading into a territory unknown to India’s numerous medium-pace bowlers. He bowled the fastest delivery by an Indian when he recorded 152.6 kmph at Adelaide against Australia on February 17. Gambhir, meanwhile, has re-discovered the prolific batsman in himself. An attacking player by nature, he is the top run-getter with an aggregate of 422 (average of over 70) in the tri-series so far. He has also made the transition from a good player to a better one by improving his batting. With Yuvraj out of sorts, Gambhir stayed put for the entire duration of an innings twice in the tri-series, while seeing his team through in the last group game against Sri Lanka. Ishant, too, was hugely responsible, along with Praveen Kumar, for ensuring that Sri Lanka were bundled out at Hobart. Earlier, he had picked up four wickets against Australia to fashion a rare Indian victory on Australian soil. He has taken 13 wickets in the tri-series at an astounding average of 19.46. Gambhir, who is enjoying the form of his life, has learnt the indispensable truth of international cricket — if you don’t know how to finish it, starting it matters for little. He and Dhoni, who has curbed his natural game to see the team through, have been outstanding. Gambhir has made it a point to dent the bowling attack with his slam-bang opening stint, and then rub it in further by staying on for as long as possible. Ishant has made icons like Wasim Akram sit up and say that he has the potential to change the face of India’s pace attack. His combination with Sreesanth has been touted as the fastest opening combination that India have boasted of. Even the Australians have given the youngster his due, not just in the form of their wickets, but also in compliments coming from former legends as well as current players. Along with these two, some other players who need to come up with the goods are Sachin Tendulkar, who started looking in fine nick against Sri Lanka; Yuvraj, who needs to find a cure for his dipping fielding standard and inconsistent form, before the selectors find a worthy replacement; and Virender Sehwag, who needs to realise that in an ODI it is not mandatory to get out before getting into the 20s. The bowling, with Pathan, Ishant, Praveen and Harbhajan looks steady and will hold the key if India are to restrict an Australian rampage from running them over. Even with so much optimism, and potential, the Indians go into the finals as under-dogs. So let’s hope that like all underdog stories, this tale Down Under also ends with a cliché.
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IN THE NEWS Absolute domination by foreigners continues in Indian football, with imports scoring over 50 per cent of the goals in the just-concluded ONGC I-League.
By netting an incredible 136 of the 227 goals in the league, the players from abroad proved beyond doubt that without them Indian soccer lacks quality. Churchill Brothers skipper, Nigerian Odafe Onyeka Okolie, is the 10th foreigner in succession to bag the Golden Boot in the national league since 1998-99, scoring 22 goals. Close on Okolie’s heels were JCT’s Brazilian striker Eduardo Escobar (14), Churchill’s Mboyo Iyomi (12) and Dempo skipper Ranti Martins (11), both from Nigeria. Indian skipper Baichung Bhutia, who led Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan in the league, was the top Indian scorer with nine goals. Only two Indians have emerged leading goal-scorers in the league since 1996-97 — Bhutia (14) in the NFL’s first edition and FC Kochi’s Raman Vijayan (10) the next year. Since then, foreign players have come to take centre-stage so much so that much has been left to be desired about Indian footballers using the occasion effectively to raise their playing standards. If Odafe and Iyomi were the mainstay for Churchill, Roberto ‘Beto’ Mendis Silva and Chidi Edeh propeed up Dempo throughout the league. Similarly, Jose Baretto and Douglas Da Silva (Bagan), Wisdom Abbey and Baba Thunde (Viva Kerala) and Alvito D’Cunha and Edmilson (East Bengal) were the pillars of their respective teams. While Eduardo Escobar and Julius Akpele kept JCT in the title contention almost till the final round, foreigners Pierre Djidjia Douhou and Andrews Pomeyie Mensah played brilliant soccer for Mahindra United. This being the case, the role of Indian players turned out to be so secondary that even some of their fine performances in patches — except for Bhutia and Sunil Chetri — always went unnoticed during the championship. That the All-India Football Federation is reportedly contemplating to increase the number of teams in the I-League from next year augurs well for the sport as more players will get an opportunity to play at the national level. However, as Dempo coach Almando Colaco put it after his team bagged the I-League title, “one has to agree that Indian football still has a long way to go”. — PTI I-League Standings 1. Dempo Sports Club (Goa) |
The Indian men’s hockey team will have to come up with a spectacular performance in the Olympic qualifier at Santiago (Chile) if they want to avoid the ignominy of missing the bus to Beijing.