India’s grass training raises doubts

The idea to train at Murwillambah, a New South Wales town with a substantial Indian, mostly Sikh community, apparently was to give the Indian side a sense of home. The town has a Sikh temple and recognisable food is abundant.But considering that there are only 10 artificial turf pitches in India, and their dearth has been blamed by some for the country’s fall from the top of field hockey’s elite, the decision to train in Murwillambah is now being questioned.

Monday’s game against Sydney also exposed India’s midfield weakness, with strikers Baljit Singh Dhillon and Dhanraj Pillay constantly retreating to get the ball and build attacks. India scored two second-half goals to eventually prevail. “I was happy with the effort,” said coach Vasudevan Baskaran, who captained India’s last Olympic gold-medal winning side in 1980. “The boys cannot go all out for such a game.” “But the Sydney University boys were good and made us work extra. It’s always the fear of an injury that scares the players into stretching too much when going into a tackle.”

Pillay said he was happy with the team’s efforts and called the match “good. I ran hard and the match helped in tuning up for the game. I think the team had a good session,” he said.

Critics already are saying Sydney University gave the Indians a needed jolt. “Indian hockey has been at the crossroads … because we have never bothered to learn from our mistakes,” Baskaran said. “Another poor show could prove disastrous for Indian hockey’s future.” India have seen their prominence in hockey decline sharply over the last 20 years and especially since it won 30 straight matches from 1928 to 1960, claiming five gold medals and a silver.

Some mark India’s decline with the 1-0 loss to Pakistan in the 1960 Olympic final. It won another gold in 1964 and again in 1980, when India dominated a boycott-decimated field.