The Hindu : Sport : Hockey's homage to earthquake victims

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 09, 2005

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Hockey's homage to earthquake victims

S. Thyagarajan

Asian subtlety was suffused with the power and precision of European and Aussie flavour

— Photo: Vino John

TIMELY CONTRIBUTION: Mr. N. Ramachandran hands over a cheque to Ms. Els van Breda Vriesman as Gagan Ajit Singh (left), Mudassar Ali Khan (right) and Mr. K. Jothikumaran look on.

Chennai: This was hockey's way of paying homage. Designed to assuage the trauma of the victims of the unprecedented devastation following an earthquake in Pakistan and India two months ago, the charity contest at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium on Thursday mirrored a solemn prayer to spread the message how much the hockey community shares the human suffering and dedicates itself to the welfare of humanity.

The tie was not intended to underline the ingredients of a combat, but to mirror hockey's nuances, its amalgam of aesthetics and athleticism, the very deification of sport. It mattered little who won or lost. What mattered was the cause for which the star galaxy was assembled to set the tempo for the bigger and the prestigious Champions Trophy starting on Saturday.

Congregation

Never before has there been such a congregation of the quintessence of contemporary hockey talent exhibiting the effulgence that flowed like a symphony. The venue was bathed from the newly installed floodlights and the fairly large gathering enhanced the ambience all round.

Headed by the FIH president, Els van Breda Vriessman, and the sponsor of the match, executive director N. Ramachandran of India Cements, the crowd enjoyed every minute of the action of which there was plenty as the match gained pace. The contrast of the Asian subtlety suffused with the power and precision of European and Aussie flavour.

Splendid goals

There were some splendid goals too, the fifth by Jaime Dwyer of Australia taking the cake as the best late in the encounter.

The Germans in the pack, Matthias Witthaus and Sebastian Biederlack, shone with their penchant for direct hits.

The few sallies of Teun de Nooijer were enough to convince the audience of the Dutchman's stature in the game as did the through passes of midfielder Jeroeme Delmee.

Pakistan's goal-keeper Salman Akbar won the approbation for a few superb saves, especially from the penalty corner hits by the Dutch supremo, Taeke Takema. Arjun Halappa and Viren Resquinha figured prominently for the India-Pakistan combination.

Both Gagan Ajit Singh and Prabhjot Singh were conspicuous for the chances they failed to connect or for their mis-hits.

A thundering backhander by Gagan did evoke spontaneous cheers.

Cheque handed over

There was a brief presentation ceremony at half-time when Mr. Ramachandran handed over the cheque for US$10,000 (Rs. 4.5 lakhs) to the FIH president. Els van Breda Vriesmann thanked the sponsor and also the large turn out for their response to a worthy cause.

Before the start, a minute's silence was observed as a mark of respect to the memory of those who perished in the earthquake in Pakistan and in India.

It was officially confirmed that Pakistan Hockey Federation has indeed filed an appeal in the Court of Arbitration against the three-match suspension of captain, Mohammad Saqlain. This means the player concerned will be eligible to play in all the matches in the Champions Trophy till the judgement on the issue from CAS is delivered.

The result: Rest of the World XI 5 (Sebastian Biederlack, Mathias Witthaus 2, Karel Klaver, Jaime Dwyer) beat India-Pakistan XI 3 (Arjuj Halappa, Viren Resquinha, Tariq Aziz).

The teams: India-Pakistan: Salman Akbar (GK), Muhammad Imran, Adnan Maqsood, Dilawar Hussain, Rehan Butt, Mudassar Ali Khan, Shakeel Abbasi, Muhammad Shabbir, Tariq Aziz, Imran Warsi (Pakistan); Adrian D'Souza, Kanwalpreet Singh, V.S. Vinay, Ignace Tirkey, Gagan Ajit Singh, V. Raja, Prabhjot Singh, Adam Sinclair, and Arjun Halappa (India). Coach: Tyabb Ikram.

Rest of the World XI: Brent Livermore, Beven George, Jamie Dwyer, Micheal McCann (Australia); Guus Vogels (GK), Jeroeme Delmee (Capt), Teun de Nooijer, Take Takema, Sander van der Weide, Karel Klaver (Netherlands), Tibor Wissenborn, Mathias Witthaus, Bjorn Emmerling, Timo Wess, Sebastian Biederlack, and Christian Schultz (GK) (Germany); Kiko Farbrigas, Santi Freixa, Rodrigo Garza, Pablo Amat, David Alegre (Spain). Coach: Ken Read (Australia).

Umpires: Satinder Kumar (India) and David Leiper (Scotland) first half; David Gentiles (Australia) and Raghuprasad (India) second half.

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