Is Dhanraj a cert for Athens?

Or maybe not. IHF president KP Gill, speaking to The Indian Express, didn’t agree with the view that Dhanraj’s absence had hurt the team in Australia. ‘‘We lost to Australia earlier also when Pillay was playing. We cannot go by sentiments for considering any player.’’

Asked specifically whether Pillay would be in the Athens squad, Gill said: ‘‘It’s too early to say anything. I would not like to comment on any individual player.’’

That’s an ambiguity that Dhanraj doesn’t merit and the team doesn’t need. Over the past couple of years, he has been the team’s main playmaker, feeding the young forwardline. India beat Australia twice in this period and Pillay won the MVP award in one of the tournaments, the 2002 Champions Trophy in Cologne.

Right now, the most important thing for Indian hockey is to find a combination that will work against Australia and Holland, the top teams in India’s pool in the Olympics. Earlier in the year, India sent an experimental team under Pillay to the Azlan Shah trophy; he scored both goals in a 4-2 loss to Australia.

India had a good record against the Dutch till this year; once Dhanraj was dropped, the gap opened up again.

Dhanraj’s usefulness in the Indian team is not restricted to scoring or creating goals — he’s an asset when the team defends penalty-corners due to his quick burst from the goalline to stop the drag-flick. He was the No.1 charger in the team, something that even Pakistan’s Sohail Abbas acknowledged.

Someone, it seems, still has to convince the IHF. It could all be a bit of winding-up, of course; Gill is known for strewing red herrings before journalists. But this goes beyond the realm of mindgames; four months before the Olympics, the only game Indian hockey’s most charismatic player needs to play is on the turf, in his country’s colours.