CHANDIGARH: Things are going well for Indian hockey. The recently concluded European Hockey Championship in Paris must have brought some cheers to the national hockey probable as every member of the team, including the chief coach and the assistant coach, wanted the Germans to carry home the coveted cup. The Germans did not disappoint them.
The win for the Germans in the final against the World Cup champions, Holland, removes yet another obstacle from the way of the Indian team in its pursuit to qualify for the Barcelona Olympic Games.
As things stand today, the qualifying tournament in Auckland will be without Holland, Olympic champions Britain, European champions Germany, Asian Games champions Pakistan, and Australia-zone champions Australia besides the hosts of the next Olympics, Spain.
Two more continental championships are to be held, the winners of which will automatically qualify for the Barcelona Olympics. These championships are the African championship and the Pan-American championship. As such only tour top teams of the Auckland tournament will gain entry into the Barcelona Olympics. With top teams qualifying on the basis of either their past performances or their placing in the last respective continental championships, the task for the former Olympic champions, India, has become easier.
Had the Netherlands won the European Cup and New Zealand beaten Australia in the three- match Olympic qualifying play- off against Australia, the task for India would have been much more difficult.
The team must have assembled at the southern center of NIS in Bangalore for its next phase of coaching camp. The team performed satisfactorily on a brief but hectic European tour.
The captain of the team, Pargat Singh, who was in Chandigarh told The Tribune that he was “satisfied” with the performance of his boys.
India won 2-1 against Spain, lost one game and drew the second against the Germans as well as the Dutch in the nine-game tour,
Umpiring was one field where the Indians were dissatisfied on the tour. One of the reasons for their losing the opening games against each of their three European opponents was probably the umpiring. The grounds in Spain were heavy.
The turnout of the crowd was the maximum in the Netherlands. Some week points noticed in the team included right-half, outside- left, goalkeeper and in patches center-half. There was some improvement in taking penalty corners as the team scored four penalty corner goals on the tour.
Stamina-wise, the team rose to the demand despite a hectic schedule. Pargat Singh got injured in the first match against the Dutch. He does not remember how did he get the injury on his right temporal after colliding with a Dutch player. He skipped the last game of the tour.
There were, otherwise, no injury problems on the tour.
The Indian team will now prepare itself for the Ipoh tournament to be held in the last week of July where beside Malaysia, South Korea and Pakistan, the Soviets are also playing.
After the European tour and the European Cup championship, Indian well team looks confident of doing well in the Auckland tournament, “We are confident to qualify for the Olympic Games.” adds Parget Singh.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 12, 1991
