A forgettable experience

Though it was tragic that a tournament that prides itself on its history completely ignored — or forgot, more likely — the fact that it was the death anniversary of the biggest legend in the game ever, the hockey played out in the middle by Indian Oil (IOC) and Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) made it worse. And if one considers the fact that everyone in the IOC squad has played for India at some point — as also almost half of the BPCL line-up — it was definitely not what was expected.

For the record, BPCL won the tournament 2-0. Right from the word go, it was evident that BPCL were a more cohesive unit. The team have players who have been playing together for quite a few seasons now, and the comfort level showed. The strike force of Amar Aiyamma, Hari Prasad and Tushar Khandker gelled well and made repeated forays into the opposition box, but was thwarted by IOC goalkeeper Baljit Singh repeatedly.

In fact, he was the lone bright spot for IOC. In fact, even with the likes of Prabhjot Singh, Rajpal Singh and Deepak Thakur in their ranks, IOC never even came close to scoring throughout the 70 minutes.

In the second half, the players seemed to simply go through the motions rather than mount any serious challenge. They earned the only penalty corner of the match in the last minute, and that too went waste.

Missing sitters
On the other hand, BPCL could have won by a bigger margin had they not messed up a few simple sitters. But they were undoubtedly the better team. Their first real chance came in the 17th minute, when Aiyamma sent the ball from the left to Hari Prasad in front of an open goal, who only had to tap it in, with all of the IOC defence missing.

A minute later, veteran Sabu Varkey made a brilliant dash down the right flank and brilliantly centred the ball, but Khandker’s shot went just wide of the posts. In fact, though Aiyamma was named the best player of the tournament, it was Sabu who made all the difference. Playing playmaker to perfection, he was everywhere, feeding the forwards, and tirelessly working the flanks. At the back, captain Ajay Saroha and SS Gill and goalkeeper Swinder Singh made sure the defence was not leaky.

Khandkar’s pass
After some more near-misses, BPCL finally doubled their lead in the 54th minute. Hari passed the ball to Khandker in front of the goal but the latter selflessly passed it to Aiyamma at the top of the striking circle. With an advancing IOC goalkeeper Baljit completely beaten, Aiyamma shot the ball in. Once again, it was a defensive lapse on the part of IOC.

But even as the two teams walked off the turf and the prize distribution was on, there was no mention of Dhyanchand, the man who made hockey synonymous with Indian sports.

Players miss Shivaji stadium
Even as the Nehru stadium in Gugoan hosted this year’s edition, players and hockey enthusiasts missed Delhi’s Shivaji Stadium, that is curently under renovation for the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

“There is nothing to match the Shivaji Stadium feel. The people who come to watch hockey there are true lovers of the game. Sometimes, they know the game better than several of the players themselves,” was the common refrain of players.

“ We don’t remember playing a Shastri hockey final like this, without either the cheers or the jeers of a passionate crowd,” they said. And national coach Harendra Singh simply said: “Hockey dekhne ka mazza to Shivaji Stadium mein hi hai.”