LAHORE: The disappointing performance by India in the league phase of the World Cup Hockey championship here has put the clock back once again.
The inability of the team to win even a single match out of their five outings has left them in the same state they were at the previous championship four years ago.
Hopes of chief coach M P Ganesh and countless followers back home were dashed by some insipid display by a team who were capable of producing better results than they have turned out.
The slide began on the first day of the championship with the one-all draw against the Soviet Union and in successive matches, results continued to go against them,
Coach Ganesh said Monday, “we have no excuses to offer, and we should have won the first three matches.” With amazing regularity, India took the lead in their matches against Soviet Union, Argentina and France but could not hold on to it.
However, the showing improved in the last two matches— against European Champions Holland and holders Australia, giving a tough fight to both.
The fallout of the results is that India will have to battle it out for minor placing against Canada and Ireland and perhaps the Soviet Union.
This also meant that India will be out of all major international tournaments like the world cup, champion’s trophy etc for some time to come.
Their immediate take will be to regain form before the Asian Games, where only a gold medal can assure them of a place in the 1992 Olympics at Barcelona. Otherwise, they will have to go through the qualifying round next year.
Surprisingly, the present outfit, with some changes, had raised India’s standing after hitting an all-time low at the 1986 World Cup by clinching the sixth spot at the Seoul Olympics.
Somehow, the team failed to get into top gear in this tournament. In the five matches, India scored ten Goals with spearhead Jagbeer Singh top scoring with three. Germany, who have the same number of points but are better, placed on goal difference,
The fast-paced match saw Pakistan losing two early penalty comers, Canada replied with an assault in the 18th minute by Satinder Chohan, which went amiss and four minutes later Chris Gifford messed up an easy chance. With a swift counter attack, Pakistan redressed the balance of the match in their favor when Tahir Zaman scooped the ball in past the onrushing goalkeeper Ken Goodwin after Shahbaz had done the approach work.
A little before the breather, Pakistan weathered a brief Canadian siege with the defense rising to the occasion to foil repeated attempts of Gifford, Douglas Knapp and Chohan.
Pakistani Wingers Wasim Feroze and Qamar Ibrahim did a lot of spade work constantly pushing into the rival territory and spying measured passes.
Playmaker Shahbaz Ahmed, showing patches of individual brilliance, managed to lose his tails on more than ‘one occasion. However, substitute center forward Arif Bhopali left far too many gaps in his position only to be.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 23, 1990
