Hockey Team

Despite lack lustre shows off late, the team holds promise.

If anything best describes the unpredictable character of Indian sports it is the Indian Hockey team. The national game of India has for long fallen by the road side, playing a poor cousin to the more fancied Cricket. However, in early 2001 under the tutelage of now sacked chief coach Rajinder Singh, this team started on a winning run. It must be emphasized here that Rajinder has had perhaps the most successful stint as chief coach, the team winning the Asia Cup and the Afro-Asian Games title during his tenure.

HT Image

One of the finest performances put up by the talented bunch of players like Dhanraj Pillay, Dilip Tirkey, Jugraj Singh and Gagan Ajit Singh came in the Championships Trophy in Germany when Indians puts up a very spirited fight against Pakistan eventually losing 4-3.

However, of late the team has been plagued by controversies and accidents severely denting their confidence. First was the exclusion of star striker Dhanraj Pillay and Baljit Singh Dhillon from the team’s preparatory camp for the Athens. At 34, Dhanraj was perhaps thought to be a bit slow and thus not fit enough to pull his weight. Next to rock the Hockey team was the issue of appointing of foreign coaches. It saw Oliver Kurtz and Gerhard Rach being appointed which many felt was a step too late with merely weeks to go for the Olympics. Finally, even as the team underwent training at Barog in Himachal Pradesh and Arizona in the US, Rajinder Singh has been given the boot.