Kalinga hope to find foothold against Delhi

Ahead of the Lancers match against Delhi Waveriders on Thursday, Walsh said he would prefer speaking about his club.

Returning to the National Stadium in his temporary avatar as the chief coach of the Kalinga Lancers HIL team, Terry Walsh, who also serves as the chief coach of the Indian senior side was wary about answering questions as to his dual role.

Ahead of the Lancers match against Delhi Waveriders on Thursday, Walsh said he would prefer speaking about his club. That wouldn’t have been easy either. The Lancers who are playing their debut HIL season this year, opened their campaign with a 7-3 hammering at the hands of Punjab Warriors on Tuesday.

Walsh explained away the drubbing by saying his was a new team compared to the other teams. “We have a year and a couple of games less experience than them,” he said.

Story continues below this ad

The team had only a week before the tournament to train together. While that is the case for all other teams in the tournament, Waveriders, benefit from a relatively familiar squad built around players like midfielder Sardar Singh, defender Singh, Rupinderpal Singh, forward Lloyd Norris-Jones and goalkeeper Nicolas Jacobi.

Walsh agreed that coaching a franchise side had its challenges especially with “blending of five different cultures (Lancers have players of five nationalities) to bring the best in each one of them.”

In their first game, Walsh’s side had struggled to play as a unit and even appeared to panic a little when both keepers Tristan Clemons and then Harjot Singh were repeatedly substituted. Their task will be cut out against the Waveriders at a venue where the hosts have only lost once.