It's a bright and sunny day and the Rot-Weiss Club is bustling with activities as the teams get down to serious business on the eve of the 24th Champions Trophy here today. Australian captain Paul Gaudoin, who is of Indian origin, and his players are waiting for the Germans to wrap up their practice session.Despite the Aussie drawl, one cannot miss the traces of Indian connection in Gaudoin, whose family roots are in Chennai. The Aussie midfielder had a superb World Cup at Kuala Lumpur but his team had to be content with the silver. Most of the teams here for the Champions Trophy are in a re-building process. In fact that is the trend followed by most top teams, who look for fresh players, a new combination of youth and experience after the World Cup or Olympics in order to rebuild the team for the next four years.There is a sense of relief among the international coaches and players to see India return to the fold. ‘‘They are always a top level team but I don’t know what happened to them in the World Cup,’’ says German midfielder Philipp Crone. The eight-time Olympic gold medallist have qualified for the Champions Trophy after six years though things have not changed much at the top level except that Holland have been replaced by the Germans in the elite group.Perhaps, no other team will depend so much on youth power as the Indians in this championship. The number of new faces is almost half the total strength and there are 13 members from the team that won the Junior World Cup at Hobart (Australia) last year. However, it’s too early to say if youth power alone can drive Indian hockey forward. It is also quite possible that the Indians can rediscover their confidence here as they now have a coach who swears by traditional hockey. Chief coach Rajinder Singh’s philosophy is summarised in just two words: score goals. The more goals the forwards can score, there will be less pressure on the midfield and defence. Though the attacking brand of hockey has seen the Indians expand their goal tally in recent tournaments, their defence and man-to-man marking has remained poor.Rajinder is hoping to plug the gaps in midfield and defence by creating a well-knit team that will function through a small core group, comprising the most experienced players in the team: ace striker Dhanraj Pillay (forwardline), Sukhbir Singh Gill (midfield) and captain Dilip Tirkey (defence). They will ultimately form the vital link in the forwardline, midfield and defence.All the three areas, specially the half and defence lack experience at top level hockey. Says Rajinder, ‘‘These three players will have to settle the other players in their territory and covering all the areas properly will give confidence to young goalkeeper Devesh Chauhan.’’The 21-year-old Chauhan was an understudy to Jude Menezes at the World Cup and was a member of the team that won the Junior World Cup. In recent times, the Indians have improved their penalty corner conversion though there are no specialists in the side of the calibre of Pakistan’s Sohail Abbas or Taeke Taekema of The Netherlands. The think-tank has about five to six variations in penalty corners and young defender Jugraj Singh who takes the drag-flick will be assisted by Dilip Tirkey.Incidentally, Cologne, one of the most ancient cities in Germany and famous for its spiralling Cathedrals, was severely bombed during the second World War. After that this prosperous zone in Europe had become a city of rubbles. Rebuilding took a long period and Cologne today ranks among the four major cities in the country. Probably such stories of inspiration should help the Indian team when it launches its campaign against Olympic champion Holland here tomorrow. The Indians will do well to tear a leaf out of Cologne’s book.
