rediff.com: IHF gets cracking for Sydney

The Indian Hockey Federation has chalked out a comprehensive training programme for the national team to enhance its medal prospects in the forthcoming Sydney Olympics.

The probables, who are at a conditioning camp in Bangalore, will play a few preparatory matches against Egypt early next month. Then, the squad will leave for Australia well ahead of the Games to get acclimatised to the conditions there.

"The preparation for the team has been going on for a long time. The camp is progressing well and all the players, barring Dhanraj Pillay and Baljit Singh Dhillon, have reported," IHF chief K P S Gill said in Delhi today.

While Pillay is expected to join the camp this evening, Gill said Dhillon had sought permission to attend to his ailing wife.

Gill informed that the federation has invited Egypt to play a few matches with the Indian probables from August 1 to 10, and after a brief rest, a 22-member squad will leave for Australia on August 20.

"We will take 22 players to Australia initially for training and the squad will be pruned to 16 before the closing date for submission of names. We want to take more players so that we can substitute a player in case of injury," said Gill.

The team will train in Murwillunbah, near Brisbane, for a few weeks before moving to Sydney by September 9. The Indians open their Olympic campaign with a match against Argentina on September 17.

"This is the best team -- in terms of physical fitness -- to leave Indian shores. There is a lot of cohesion among the players. There is also a lot of interaction between the players, coaches and the management," Gill said.

He said the federation has roped in the services of former Olympian Ranjit Singh, now settled in Spain, to assist the players in penalty-corner conversions and goalkeeping.

"We have laid a lot of emphasis on physical fitness and a couple of other weak areas which need improvement. The coaches are working on them. We are also getting full back up from the SAI," he said.

Asked whether the Indian team requires the services of a foreign coach to adapt to the European style of play, Gill said: "There has been too much talk about foreign coaches. We recently beat Germany, Australia and Korea and we had an Indian coach."

Stressing that Indian coaches are competent enough to bring about the desired results, the IHF chief said, "There are only five or six good foreign coaches at the moment. The question is: are they available to us? There is also the problem of resources."

He said the IHF has limited resources at its disposal and all development programmes are worked out taking financial constraints into consideration.

On the IHF's controversial sacking of six senior players after the Bangkok Asian Games, which caused a flutter in hockey circles, Gill clarified that the players were 'rested' and it was necessary to prolong their careers.

"If we had not rested key players like Dhanraj Pillay at that time, he could not have sustained himself for so long. It was a decision taken in the best interests of the players," he explained.

He cited the example of Korea who dropped a number of senior players after the Asian Games and rebuilt the team with a clutch of junior players.

"We had a bad experience during the World Cup. So I was a little unhappy with the euphoria generated by the Asian Games success. If we did not experiment, we would have been left in a bad situation," he said.

He said Indian players didn't train as hard as they should have in the past and the results had therefore not been satisfactory.

"I agree that the players should get more money, but the IHF has limited resources. When the team goes out, it involves a lot of expenditure. We have to spend a lot of money for these trips," Gill said.

Asked whether goalkeeper Ashish Ballal had also been 'rested' after the Asian Games, or dropped on disciplinary grounds, Gill said the IHF was not too happy after he did not attend the conditioning camp in Bangalore.


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