Pakistan

The new-look Indian hockey team faces an uphill task in the Champions Trophy beginning today, writes Prabhjot Singh

After six years, the Champions Trophy returns to its birthplace, Lahore, without one of its attractions, Australia, the only team to have participated in all previous 25 editions of the tournament.

The Champions Trophy features the world’s top six teams, competing in a round- robin format. In the absence of Australia, who pulled out due to security concerns, the Netherlands would defend their title in Lahore.

For India, the 26th edition is special as it is the first time since 1978 that the team is competing for the third consecutive year.

The new-look Indian team is without five of its stalwarts — Baljeet Dhillon, Gagan Ajit Singh, Prabhjot Singh, Deepak Thakur Sonkhla and Jugraj Singh — who had in the last edition of the tournament at Cologne created a sensation with a splendid 7-4 win over Pakistan. Though India lost to Pakistan in the bronze medal match (3-4), yet its performance raised hopes of an Olympic medal.

The 18-member squad for the Lahore tournament is, like Athens, under the German coach, Gerhard Rach, who instead of getting impressed by veteran ‘stars’ believes in building a team from scratch.

Though new faces — Hari Prasad, Sundeep Michael, Girish Pimpale, Tushar Khandekar, Vivek Gupta, VS Vinay and Prabodh Tirkey— hold a lot of promise, the Champions Trophy is too tough a tournament for them to prove themselves as worthy replacements for those who are out of the team either due to unsatisfactory performance at Athens or on medical grounds.

After Athens, where India finished a poor seventh, it lost the eight-Test series against Pakistan 4-2 but shared the honours with Spain (1-1) in two Test matches played in Chandigarh.

"They have nothing to lose. Even if we equal our previous best of finishing third, these youngsters would have proved their worth," says team manager Jagbir Singh, holding that only worry for the team management is "injuries to some senior players which may aggravate because of the new surface at Lahore".

Both Rach and Jagbir remained tight-lipped about their strategy, which they said they would unfold only in Lahore after the tournament gets under way with their match against Spain on the opening day.

Besides the Netherlands and hosts Pakistan, the other main contender for honours would be Germany. The other participants — New Zealand, Spain and India — have never progressed beyond third position in the tournament.

Only four nations have won the trophy between 1978 and 2003: Germany (eight times), the Netherlands and Australia ( seven times each) and Pakistan (three times). India’s best showing had been a third place in the fourth edition. In the 24th and 25th editions of the tournament, India had lost the bronze medal match to finish fourth.

The 22nd Champions Trophy held at Amstelveen was the only time in the history of the competition when Pakistan did not qualify.

Pakistan won in 1978 on grass in Lahore and in 1980 at the then newly laid Astro-turf of the Hockey Club of Pakistan Stadium in Karachi. Subsequently, it had to wait 14 years to clinch its third Champions Trophy title, again at Lahore in 1994.

Would Pakistan make it to victory podium for their fourth time? Much will depend upon how the world’s top goal scorer Sohail Abbas clicks with his drag flicks.

The newly laid synthetic surface at the National Stadium may also play a crucial role. It has been under severe criticism from various quarters.

"The pitch is bouncy and uneven," complained members of the New Zealand team, questioning the wisdom of getting the new pitch commissioned only 10 days before the start of the tournament. As Australian technicians refused to travel to Lahore for the installation work, the job was left to the local people.

Indian players, too, are skeptical of the behaviour of the turf. "We played on a ‘virgin’ surface at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, in the seventh Test against Pakistan a couple of months ago. The pitch there, too, was bumpy and uneven," says Jagbir Singh.

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