The Hindu : Sport : The boys believe in themselves

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Tuesday, Jul 11, 2006

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The boys believe in themselves

Principal Correspondent

BANGALORE: Twenty-three probables with the exception of full back Kanwalpreet Singh, who is recovering from fever, are at the fitness camp for the hockey world cup probables at the SAI South Centre here. The World Cup is to be held at Monchengladbach (Germany) from September 6 to 17.

Coach Vasudevan Bhaskaran sounded upbeat. "The rare podium finish at the Azlan Shah championship in Kuala Lumpur recently has made the boys believe in themselves. They know their responsibilities and respective roles in the team... they interact amongst themselves more and hence the job is getting tougher for me," he said in lighter vein.

The ongoing camp, which got underway from Friday last (July 7) was earlier scheduled to conclude by July 23, but now with SAI South Centre getting a refined look with a new surface, it could continue here till maybe till August 17. "The weather here is more like that in Germany in September," feels Bhaskaran, who otherwise was expected to shift the camp to humid Chennai for the final phase.

"The most heartening aspect today is the ability of the players to interchange positions. Even at Kuala Lumpur (Azlan Shah) Hari Prasad played at the right thus giving more options. There again I went with just one goalkeeper to give exposure to one extra player, but always had the option to fall back on in emergency," said the former India captain.

Total attack

Bhaskaran is working on is the need for the forwards to snatch the ball from rival defenders so as to build a `total attack'. "Midfield is for reception only which will give us strength in attack," said Bhaskaran who was all praise for the likes of Tushar, Shivendra and Hari Prasad who have come off the bench to fulfil vital roles in the team.

Ruing over the missed opportunity of figuring in the Champions trophy commencing later this month, Bhaskaran said a few matches ahead of the World Cup would be ideal. "We will leave for Germany at least two weeks prior to the Championship so as to play some matches against Belgium and Spain there," he said.

India is pitted against Germany, England, Netherlands, South Korea and South Africa in Group B and Bhaskaran is satisfied with the draw. "Meeting Germany and England on the first two days before a break and then clash with Korea and South Africa before the last fixture against Netherlands is good for us. We can plan our strategy accordingly," he said.

Focus areas

On the focus areas of the current camp, he said: "We are working on total fitness... all related drills but without stick and ball. Our concentration is not to make mistakes inside the circle and concede penalty-corners."

Create a talent base so that our top players need not play every fixture is Bhaskaran's mantra. "Dilip has been around for nearly 10 years and played over 360 matches... while Ignace Tirkey played almost four years without break. In Netherlands the top players who have been playing for nearly six-seven years have only played in around 180 matches only. By rotation and preserving burn-out the team stands to gain which is something we too have to adopt. Our top players end up playing every tournament and every match. Same players cannot play 40 games a year," the coach said. Ignace was thus given a break from the four-nation tourney and the just concluded Azlan Shah tournament.

On Jugraj's fitness, Bhaskaran said: "After surgery like everybody else he too has put on weight and needs to burn it off. He is going to Australia to play in the league there and will need to play more matches. Sandeep Singh is fast emerging as a fine drag-flicker and hopefully will hear a lot more from him soon."

Another camp for the Development team is on at Patiala and will have some `tough' practice matches in August either here or in Chennai. Bhaskaran is being assisted by Harender Singh.

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