The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : We will have to rework our strategy: Baskaran

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 24, 2006

Sport

Sport - Hockey

We will have to rework our strategy: Baskaran

Sports Reporter

NEW DELHI: The Germany-bound Indian hockey team is yet to come to terms with the freak accident that has ruled out drag-flicker Sandeep Singh from the World Cup campaign.

"We will have to rework our strategy as regards to set pieces as Sandeep was the key factor in the triangle involving Arjun Halappa and Tushar Khandekar," said the Chief Coach of the team, V. Baskaran at Gurgaon on Wednesday, and added he did not want to present his absence as an excuse beforehand.

However, Baskaran said that his task had become tougher as he had worked very hard with the drag-flicker over the last four months.

"When I took over, he (Sandeep) was not in the starting eleven, but I knew he was the man who can get goals and shouldn't be sitting out," Baskaran said.

On Wednesday, the 17-member team assembled at the Nehru Stadium in Gurgaon and the coach worked out different strategies on penalty corner conversions.

While Jugraj Singh and Vikramjit Singh were paired with Halappa and Khandekar, the third penalty corner specialist named by the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), Raghunath, was in Colombo with the South Asian Games team.

"Technically it is difficult for me (at this stage) to fit in a new man in place of Sandeep and get the desired result," said Baskaran. "I am only worried about penalty corners," he added.

But the coach is confident that the team would come out of it and perform better than what it did in the last World Cup.

India is grouped in Pool B with the Netherlands, Germany, South Korea, South Africa and England.

Tough group

"We have a tough group, but I am looking only at the first match against Germany," said Baskaran.

"Germany and the Netherlands are tough teams but we have worked out on our past flaws and are confident of taking them head on, Baskaran said.

The team will have its final training session on Thursday morning before it leaves for Germany. India is set to play two matches against Belgium, one against a German club before a friendly against Japan on September 3.

Looking at India's chances at the World Cup at Monchengladbach from September 6 to 17, Baskaran said that for the first time he was able to get the players adapt to different strategies for different teams.

"You cannot make 25 attacks in 35 minutes and then leave gaps open in the second half," Baskaran said.

The coach said that the team had considerably reduced the number of errors it used to commit, which should help India do better against the European teams.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport