Looking for thoroughbreds among colts

Indias think tank was already big enough,with coaches Gregg Clark,Baljeet Singh Saini and David Staniforth working full time with the team. Now they have senior dragflicker Sandeep Singh helping them out with penalty corners. Besides,high-performance director Roelant Oltmans is a constant presence in the stands and on the sidelines when the squad is training at the National Stadium.

Elsewhere,Australia U-21 coach Paul Gaudion is constantly in touch with Ric Charlesworth,who mentors the senior World Champion team. Such impressive guest appearances for an age-group event are understandable as,on the surface,there appears to be a direct correlation between a teams performance at the junior level and their fortunes at subsequent major senior-level events: World Cups and the Olympics.

Take Pakistan for example. Its junior team won the inaugural event in 1979 and racked up three bronze medals and a silver in the next four editions. Between 1979 and 1994,the Green Shirts won the two Senior World Cups (1982,1994),and the 1984 Olympic gold.

Similarly,Germany,who won four successive junior titles between 1982-1993,bagged an Olympic gold and two silver medals,and five Champions Trophy titles between 1984 and 1992.

Catching them young

Australia,meanwhile,won their first and only Olympic gold in Athens 2004,seven years after their colts lifted their maiden junior World Cup at Milton Keynes,England.

There would be five or six (players who played in the 1997 junior event and went on to win the Olympic gold),if I can think off the top of my head, says Gaudion. I have one such player in my coaching staff,Mathew Wells.

However,while he acknowledges that importance of performances in the Junior World Cup,the Australian insists they are not a definitive indicator of the future. Theres another number: Our junior team finished sixth in 2001,but many of those players went on to win the Athens gold three years later. I think you can read into it what you like. I think there are too many factors,variables that come into play between the junior and senior levels. Look,theres a reason why theres a Junior World Cup and there is a Senior World Cup. Its difficult to assess a junior programme, Gaudion adds.

Nevertheless,Germany,who have won the junior event five times,give almost obsessive attention to the junior programme. For them its the lifeblood that sustains their hockey. And they need to catch them young. In Delhi,they have five players who can even play at Under-18 level. We are always on a look-out for young players, says the U-21 teams coach Andre Henning. The thing is,in Germany,hockey players dont earn money. They play for fun. And the thing is that if you dont earn any money,you have to stop your career at some point. So the dropout rates are very high. So,as I said,we need to look-out for them very early. They start at 18-19. By the time they are 25,its over,mostly. Rarely they last till their 30s. Because of that,these U-21 events get more and more important for us, he says.

Graduation problem

Unlike Germany,Pakistan or Australia,Indias success at the Under-21 level has failed to translate into anything major at the next level. In 1997,India finished runners-up and then went on to win the title four years later in Hobart. While that bunch of talented players sparkled briefly,their performance in the Olympic barely improved (7th in 2000 and 2004),and,in the case of the World Cups,it actually deteriorated (9th in 1998,10th in 2002 and 11th in 2004). Rajinder Singh Senior,who was coach of the 2001 Junior World Cup winning team,says: Those players went to win a few tournaments. The Panasonic Cup,where we defeated Australia,the Asia Cup. Also three times we finished fourth in the Champions Trophy.

Jugraj Singh,Gagan Ajit Singh,Deepak Thakur,Devesh Chauhan,Viren Rasqinha,Prabhjot Singh Rajpal Singh… It was a great group of players. But they were chopped and changes far too often. Jugraj was injured and was never the same player thereafter. I would say if they were groomed well,India would have had more success. Its unfortunate because such talented players come together at the same time rarely.

Gifted squad

Current India coach Gregg Clark believes that he has an equally gifted lot at his disposal. But he says its how they are handled here onwards that will shape their and Indian hockeys future.

It really for Hockey India to put a pathway in place for this group of players,going forward. Whatever our results are,this is a immensely talented group of players and India has a very bright future on the senior level with this set that is gonna be available for the next five 10 years, Clark,who has been with the team for the last nine months,says.

We have the Rio Olympics in 2016 and the World Cup at home in 2018. So its for Hockey India to ensure that the players are physically and psychologically developed so that they at their absolute peak in the next few years. I think now is the time that the planning needs to start.

Transition,then,will be the key. In 2001,the Indian colts defeated Germany 3-2 in the semifinals. As Thakur,Gagan Ajit,Jugraj et al fizzled out with unremarkable careers,seven players from that German team Sebastian Biederlack,Forian Keller,Tibor Weissenborn,Timo Abwehr Wess,Matthias Witthaus,Christopher Zeller and Philipp Zeller – went on to win the gold in Beijing 2008.