India win match but humiliate their star

Dhanraj and Dhillon were kept sitting on the bench for most part of the game leading to the speculation if this was the IHF's way of telling them 'we don't need you any more'.

India's last hockey match on Friday turned out to be the most dramatic of the seven games they played at the Helliniko Complex at Athens.

Two senior-most players of the team, Dhanraj Pillay and Baljit Singh Dhillon were kept sitting on the bench for a long period -- Pillay played for less than three minutes and Dhillon about 20 minutes towards the end -- giving rise to speculation that it was their last international match for the country, and that it was the Indian Hockey Federation's way of telling them 'we don't need you any more'.

The two were sent in as substitutes only after injuries to teammates Harpal Singh and Viren Rasquinha, and that must have been very humiliating for the former skippers, playing their last Olympic Games.

In a game, in which India thrashed Asian rivals South Korea 5-2 to finish seventh -- the same as in Sydney four years ago -- coach Gerhard Rach, who likes to use the rotational substitution as much as any other coach, refused to make a single substitution in the first half.

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