I felt I had done something for Indian hockey,” was what Vasudevan Bhaskaran, the captain of the gold-medal winning team at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games, said after the team’s return. Twenty-six years later, in his fourth stint as the coach of the national team, and with 12 days to go for the World Cup in Germany, Baskaran hopes for an encore. Away from the hustle and bustle, in a quite corner of Gurgaon the coach talked to Sportsline on his targets and what he expects from his team at Moenchengladbach. Excerpts: Since you took over as the coach, you have effected a number of changes in the team’s approach. What results have you got? Sometime in January, I spoke to the IHF after I got to know that they were looking for a coach. That’s how it all started. After my appointment in April and at the first camp that I had with the team here at Gurgaon, I told the players that they were not exhibiting the good talent that they had and were very restricted in their movements on the field. This I wanted to change, and to an extent the support staff was successful and we did well in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup. In the pre-World Cup camps, this aspect of ‘free hockey’ was discussed and worked out and now we would like to put it on display.The game has changed a lot, today it is a power game rather than about skill.Things have changed and are changing rapidly. When you talk about the game today, you keep in mind a lot of aspects. it is not only about skill. It also involves psychological, mental and physical aspects. This is where we lack against the Europeans. A lot of thought was put in these areas at the camp and the players have responded well.The team has had three training camps at three different venues, how has it benefited the team?We wanted to have 45-50 days of training before the World Cup, so the idea of having it at different places was conceived. Though it is new in India, many of the European countries have tried it in the past and it has worked, because that way one does not get bored with one place. And whenever we changed base, the team got to learn something new. In Bangalore, the weather was ideal for the skills camp, Hyderabad had good facilities where we could work on different aspects of the game. And since India is a vast country, we thought this was the ideal time to use this to our advantage.In its build-up to World Cup, the team hasn’t played in any major tournament apart from the Azlan Shah Cup. Do you think it would take a bit more time for the players to get into the groove? We can look at it from both sides, and we cannot sit and complain about it. Yes, I would have liked the team to play at the Champions Trophy because we could have had a good look at the other teams. But then if we played, we would not have had the 45 days we had to work on our shortcomings.What are your strengths, and where do you think the weaknesses lie?The strength of the team lies in the quality we have — a good mix of youth and experience. Also, the team has speed and the way they can move with the ball. This, if utilized, will take the team places at the World Cup.Coming to the weakness, firstly, we have to do away with slow starts. We concede early goals and weak goals that affect the match. Though a lot of it has been reduced, we will have to reduce it further. Other teams will look to cash in on the slightest opening one may allow. Another aspect that we have been emphasising on during the camps is not to make mistakes in our own half. On your expectations from the World Cup?One has to be realistic. I wouldn’t say that we will finish on the podium, but the team is in good shape and we hope all the training now transpires into a good show on the field. And we have a tough group, but I am looking only at the first match against Germany and take it from there.The absence of Sandeep Singh will create a big void not only in the drag-flick section but also in defence. What immediate corrective measures are you taking?We have to rework our strategy as regards to set-pieces as Sandeep Singh was the key factor in the triangle, involving Arjun Halappa and Tushar Khandekar. We have tried other pairings — Jugraj Singh and Vikramjit Singh along with Halappa and Khandekar — and we have another player joining us in Raghunath, so let’s see how it goes in the practice matches that we have at Cologne.In the last tournament, there was a conscious attempt not to concede penalty corners. Going into this tournament, would you be looking at applying a similar strategy, and can you throw some light on how the defence has been trained in this regard?I have already forgotten what we did in Malaysia. But yes, we will be looking at implementing a couple of things that we did there, apart from doing other things that I would not like to disclose at the moment. The heartening thing is that the team has sincerely followed what we discussed and implemented them successfully. Another thing that was told during the camps was to avoid hurried passes and the players were made to understand the different intricate rules that are there for each position. How has the involvement of physical trainer Derek Knox benefited the team? I am satisfied with the way Knox has guided the team. The boys have done well under him. They are fit. But you cannot get the results of fitness training overnight. It’s a long-term process.So are you looking at a long-term plan for Knox?It is too premature to say, as the initial contract was only up to the World Cup. And even Knox has his own institute back in Australia. So let’s see how it goes after we return and why not if all goes well it’s good to have him.
