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Australia, Ipoh tours — a meaningless exercise

S. Thyagarajan

Chennai: Why and what for? Such questions are inevitable even as India embarks on another hockey mission this week.

Hardly has the disappointment died down after the disastrous Olympic qualifier last month and India is back in the business of foreign trips justifying them as preparing for 2010!

In about 70 minutes at Santiago on March 9, the history and tradition of Indian hockey were obliterated sending millions to a state of despair.

The cascade of words that followed only underlined the empathy and anger of people from all walks of life.

The cacophony of the voices against the establishment and the coaches led to nowhere; the best counsels were ignored and solutions suggested were dismissed with amazing note of contempt. Against this background, the tour to Australia and to Ipoh in the next three weeks naturally evokes the query about its efficacy.

The coaches continue to talk in a baffling refrain as they did before the Olympic debacle giving the impression that the system has now become more perfect.

The few changes in the squad have been effected more out of necessity than conviction, are not going to lead you anywhere. Tushar Khandekar takes over from Prabodh Tirkey as the latter is not fit; Adrian returns to replace Chetri in goal, and significantly, Vinay, who should not have been dropped at all, comes back after a fairly long gap.

Dilip Tirkey’s reluctance to continue paves the way for Baxla and Jaswinder Singh. While the mid-field remains the anchor, how far will the frontline be sharp is a matter of conjecture.

Interestingly, the opponents, Australia, China and Korea, have qualified for the Olympics and they need India to sharpen their proficiency.

The feeling that India will be treated as a punching bag for teams preparing for the Olympics is difficult to contain at this point of time.

Whatever be the outcome it can only be insignificant and can in no way erase the stigma of missing the Olympics participation of eight decades.

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