VARANASE: Former captain Mobammad Shahid feels that fresh blood should be inducted if India are to regain glory in the field of hockey,

He said almost all the top hockey playing nations like the Netherlands, England and Pakistan have inducted new faces in their ranks during the last few years.

Referring to the debacle at West Berlin, which he described as “shameful” Shahid said an advisory committee comprising veterans should be formed to go into the causes of India’s poor performance and suggest remedies.

The former Olympian told “we should at least have won our matches against Pakistan and England whose players were new and inexperienced.”

He said the main reason for India’s defeat in the Champion’s Trophy was not holding a “national championship” prior to the tournament.

He said if the national championship had been organized new and promising players would have emerged.

Shahid said the other reason was continuous coaching and excessive playing on astro turf by the players, without much rest.

Shahid said if the present trend continued the day was not far off when India ‘would find it difficult to qualify for international meets.

He said national coach M.P. Ganesh should own moral responsibility for the team’s defeat and resign. Shahid said it was ‘unfortunate that almost all the coaching camps were being organized in Bangalore where there was no one to oversee these camps. He said camps should be organized in northern India under the guidance of veteran hockey stalwarts,

Shahid said there was also need for rethinking about the coaching methods. “We are very alert about physical fitness, but not much attention is given to sharpening the skills of players at coaching camps,” he said.

He also criticized the frequent changes in the team, particularly the tendency to induct and drop players at frequent inter vales. BERLIN; Pakistan hockey manager Islahuddin Siddiqui was unable to hide his disappointment after his side had stumped 14 to West Germany in the final game of the Champions Trophy here,

With bronze medal at stake, he thought his young team would put up a much tougher fight than they did against the Germans, who were led to third place by hat trick hero Carsten Fisher.

“I was very disappointed with their performance,” he said, “I expected Pakistan to win against West Germany.”

“Unfortunately though, West Germany played very well against us and they made 00d use of their strong point, the penalty ‘comer, We just couldn’t stop Fisher.

Article extracted from this publication >>  June 30, 1989