NEW DELHI: National teams Down Under are not coached by foreign coaches, according to Ken Read (Australia), who is here to evaluate strong and weak areas of the Indian team, scheduled to leave for Holland for the three nation meet.
Read, coach of the Tasmanian team and a barrister by profession said here that a week was t00 short to form opinions but in the few days since his arrival on March 9, he observed that India were vulnerable in conversion of penalty comers and strokes.
Conceding that this was a well-known shortcoming of the Indian team, Read said “I doubt if there is any team equal to Indians in skill. The players are physically fit and they have a lot of speed,” adding “Mukesh Kumar is simply dazzling.
Read, who was Australia’s goalkeeper in the 1978 Champions Trophy and is here under the cultural exchange programme was very much impressed by goalkeeper Ashish Ballal. The only thing young Balla lacks is experience and that short coming should be removed by the Bejing Asian Games,” he said.
Talking to a group at Shivaji Stadium the national coach M.P. Ganesh expressed optimism that the team would perform creditably in the championship.
In the short time available since the Indira Gandhi Gold Cup International Tournament at Lucknow, Ganesh said emphasis had been laid on the physical aspect of the players training. Endorsing Ganesh’s observation, V.K. Verma, executive director (TEAM) of Sports Authority of India (SAI) said that the stress was being made on speed endurance of players. “This san area which needs tightening up, said Verma who had obviously had a lot of homework before talking to journalists.
Of the 31 players selected for the camp, Ganesh said, 29 reported at Bangalore, Of the two who did not Ripudaman Singh had sustained a knee injury and Mark Patterson was busy with examinations,
Patterson a promising youngster may well be lost as far as Indian hockey in concerned as his father has reportedly been posted to Australia.
SAI Director-general D.K. Chatterjee keenly watched the players in action and also spoke on the occasion.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 7, 1989
