Victory a "vitamin pill" for Olympics, says Baskaran

Baskaran said the fortnight long camp at Tweedshire Hockey Centre near Brisbane helped the players work out on penalty corners and fitness and said with mercurial forward Dhanraj Pillay as the fulcrum of penalty corner defence, the `arithmetic’ worked out was followed perfectly.

Commending young forwards Gagan Ajit Singh, Deepak Thakur and Baljit Dhillon, who recovered quickly from a bad onfield incident at Sydney to play a big role in the Perth final, for working in tandem with Pillay, the coach said goalkeeper Jude Menezes also stood tall as the last line of defence.

“He has been playing well in the last couple of years. But he came up with brilliant saves and he was in particular confident in penalty corners”.

The 28-year-old Mumbai-based Menezes drew all round praise for his work under the bar. Out of 25 penalty corners conceded by India, he let in only four goals – two against Germany and two by veteran Jay Stacy of Australia.

But Baskaran was worried about Indian players’ tendency to incur temporary suspensions with wrong tackling and said it was one key area players should concentrate on.

“I have told them in clear terms, no one can take their Sydney place for granted. Each one will have to earn it in the coming days before the final team is named in July," he said.

He said there can be no guarantee on performance as all 12 teams were equally tough. On the grouping for Sydney, Baskaran said India were at advantage in Group B as the big names in penalty corner conversions were in the other group with The Netherlands, the holders, Pakistan as well as Germany.

Asiad champ and eight-time Olympic gold winners India are in pool B with Australia, Spain, Poland, South Africa (or Argentina) and South Korea. “We can defend at a much higher rate as our opponents play much more open hockey,” he said.

India last met Spain in the 1998 Utrect World Cup and lost 2-5 against the eventual runners-up.

Baskaran said players will take a two week break before assembling at the SAI, South Centre in Bangalore next month. He said Indian players showed much improvement in defending `high balls’ during penalty corner routines and that fewer corners were conceded thanks to tight marking.

Counter-attack was a vital element in India’s success, Baskaran said and added forwards, who would wait for passes, now had to dispossess rival defenders and produce goals.

India scored as many as five goals by launching quick-counters after snatching the ball from opponents, he said.

Baskaran will be travelling to Amsterdam next month to watch top teams in action at the Champions trophy tournament.

Captain Ramandeep Singh, the right-half, said the win was a big morale-booster. “See the faces of the players before and after the Australian trip. There is lot of difference. We trained like a horse in Brisbane without distraction and that showed in the results”.

Ramandeep, who with Baljit Singh Dhillon received news of their promotion as Superintendent of Police in Punjab Police on arrival here, said one huge difference from the past was the team’s ability to play better in the second half and rally after conceding goals as in the final against Germany. “This will encourage players to work harder,” he added.

A few players from the senior team will join the side for the junior world cup qualifiers in Kuala Lumpur and a couple of players from that squad like defender Lazarus Barla are expected to be drafted into the senior side.