The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : Pakistan exudes confidence

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 17, 2006

Sport

Sport - Hockey

Pakistan exudes confidence

Kamesh Srinivasan

CHANDIGARH: A confident Pakistan team tackled the media with enthusiasm despite a long journey from Amritsar by bus, even as the Indian team opted to keep a low profile, on the eve of the India-Pakistan hockey Test series here on Thursday.

The Pakistan coach Asif Bajwa said it was an important year for world hockey and a good beginning was important for his team, especially with the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne round the corner. "It is an important series and we want to win it. It is another matter that it would serve as a very good build up for the Commonwealth Games in which we face each other in the first match,'' said Bajwa.

Psychological advantage

Conceding that his team enjoyed the psychological advantage because of the better record, the Pakistan coach expected that the matches would be closely fought.

India has won only one of seven such Test series between the two countries, that too way back in 1986, and has won 15 matches as compared to 22 by Pakistan. The present series will feature six matches, three each on either side of the Wagah border.

"We have a few good juniors and it will be a good opportunity for them to perform in front of big crowds,'' said the coach.

The Pakistan captain Mohammad Saqlain said his team would stick to the game-plan as chalked out by the coach from beginning to end, and play entertaining hockey.

The Indian team, attempting to wipe out the bad memories of the recent Champions Trophy, hoped to start afresh and put up a good fare on Friday evening under the floodlights at the Sector 42 Stadium.

Coach Rajinder Singh junior was wary of interacting with the media. Indian captain Dilip Tirkey was reported to be on his way, though he may not play here.

The teams:

India: Dilip Tirkey (captain), Bharat Chhetri, Adrian D'Souza, Harpal Singh, Kanwalpreet Singh, Sandeep Singh, K. Raghunath, Arjun Halappa, Ignace Tirkey, Vikram Pillay, Prabodh Tirkey, V.S. Vinay, Rajpal Singh, Adam Sinclair, Tejbir Singh, Didar Singh, Sardara Singh, Shivendra Singh, Hari Prasad and Tushar Khandekar.

Pakistan: Mohammed Saqlain (captain), Salmar Akbar, Nasir Ahmed, Zeeshan Ashraf, Mohammed Imran, Imran Warsi, Imran Khan, Dilawar Bhatti, Adnan Maqsood, Sajjad Anwer, Rehan Butt, Mudassar Ali Khan, Shakeel Abbasi, Tariq Aziz, Shabbir Husain, Adnan Zakir, Mudassar Khan, Waqar Sharif, Shabbir Khan and Mohammed Zubair.

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