Awesome threesome fail to strike a chord in hockey

The collective failure of forwards Gagan Ajit Singh, Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh at the Athens Olympics has baffled many.

Before the start of the Olympics, they were touted as a part of one of the most dangerous forward-lines in the world. But in a span of just 15 days, the equation changed completely.

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The collective failure of forwards Gagan Ajit Singh, Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh at Athens has baffled many, who had pinned their hopes on the trio to lead India to a podium finish.

The trio, who had raised expectations of the side winning a medal after a gap of 24 years, failed to pull the side out of the slump with some ordinary stuff in their maiden Games that no one would have imagined just a few months back.

It was just in 2003 that riding on their brilliance India had won almost all the tournaments they played in.

But the juggernaut hit a road block this year and the side ran into rough weather just before the Olympics after the form of these players started to decline.

They failed to regroup themselves in time which led to India losing almost all the matches for a seventh place finish in the mega event.

Rajinder Singh, who was removed from the chief coach's post just before the Games, blamed insufficient use of these players as the major reason for their failure.

"The forward line looked as if they were playing as defenders. They were highly successful only recently. But unfortunately we did not use the strikers to the best of their abilities," he said.

"They should have allowed them to stay in the field for longer duration to deliver. But if you give five or seven minutes to a player and then pull him out, how is he going to settle down? The way we used to play was changed at Athens which left the forwards struggling.

"No doubt all the three are very good players. But what can they do if we don't allow them to play to their strength? I can say we tried to follow an European style which did no good to the team."

A look at the showing of these three forwards at Athens suggests that even though Gagan Ajit Singh was India's top scorer with seven goals, he hardly played to his potential.

Deepak Thakur was also guilty of listless display before he suffered an injury against New Zealand that forced him to cool his heels for the remainder of the country's campaign.

Prabhjot Singh was so frustrated with his own game that he went to the extent of blaming chief coach Gerhard Rach for his failure.

He accused Rach of being biased against him by not fielding him in matches for long but the fact was that the player got enough chance to prove his worth.

Gagan acknowledged that the forwards let the team down by playing some ordinary hockey, but he attributed the flop show to a defensive approach.

"We did not play attacking hockey. Rather we were a bit defensive. But whenever we have followed an attacking style, we have won," Gagan said referring to India's two wins in the competition — against South Africa (4-2) and Korea (5-2).