BARCELONA: The contests are over the medals won and records rewritten. The curtain has come down on the XX V Olympic Games at Barcelona after a 16 day extravaganza of the best and biggest ever sports spectacle.

While this capital city of Catalunya goes down into history, credited with many, lists, India once again failed to come any closer to the victory stand.

Expectations prior to departure were high primarily in archer Limba Ram and the hockey squad. It was also said that boxing and wrestling stood the medal chance if the draw was favorable, Well the worst fears hath cometh true with nothing in the kitty,

The only silver lining, maybe, was when the tennis pair Ramesh Krishnan and Leander Paes teamed to beat top seeds Fitzgerald and Woodbridge in the second round and Limba Ram finishing second in the preliminaries of the 70m event only to be ruled out subsequently. Even Shiny Wilson’s best ever show was not good enough to fetch her semifinal line-up.

And what did our hockey chaps think they were doing? What a shame fighting for the seventh and eighth, They really could never get it going from day one. Agreed that they had Germany, Australia and Great Britain in their Pool, but surely they were capable of better stuff.

I personally think now that the European tour in May possibly did more harm than good, because both Germany and Britain knew what they were in for and had suitably corrected their strategies against us. This factor was not realized, I feel, by our coaching think tank. The Germans gave nothing away and dictated the place to their requirement. Their cohesion was flawless which makes but little surprise that they entered their third straight final.

To stay on in the competition India had to secure at least five points from their first three matches. Argentina was a side whom we had beaten only two months ago at Madrid with comparative ease but our worthy heroes made such unbelievable heavy weather of the proceedings. Nevertheless they managed the points and one felt that perhaps the worst was Over.

But no way did the British leave them. Still snarling with the two Test Match defeats at home in early summer they had to settle, Rob Hill showed the doctors and Sean Kelly made the issue safe, Yet again were out raged towards exposure in their failure to strike. And what to mention of the defenders pathetically inconsistent .

The clash with the Aussies was a foregone conclusion, though the Down under played their worst game of the tournament, India had some easy chances to come good and cause an upset if not split points, but all this varnished without a whimper.

With three defeats in four they had lost out for the first chance for the 1993 Champions Trophy qualification. They were left now with an outside chance in the fifth to eighth position classification games, but before that they had to beat Olympic debutantes Egypt. They played a satisfactory opening session against the minnows, but came perilously close to sharing points towards the end.

Spain dashed all hopes for a Champions Trophy look in at the first classification fixture, where again, India were at their glorious uncertain best, doing everything but score in the beginning and then for no explicable reasons cave in.

Chief coach Bal Krishan Singh has blamed the boys for their lack of concentration and application, “It amounts to indiscipline,” he says. But obviously there is more to this than meets the eye. There could be some dissention in the side it is strongly rumored so.

After all, the team had its advantages too plenty of training on National Stadium’s Astroturf System 5, the same surface at Barcelona, the same kind of weather conditions and atmosphere, an above all no complaints as in the past, of lack of international and European exposure, Post manners would have already commenced and they will go on endlessly, Nothing will come out of all that except a few resignations and retirements.

The real need of the hour is to revamp the whole system, correct the mistakes and look realistically ahead. Only then does hockey have any future in our country.

Article extracted from this publication >> Aug 21, 1992