Australia, England and Germany will be India's opponents in a four-nation Test event from May 2 to 6, named the Visa International Invitational Hockey Tournament.
Coached by Michael Nobbs and captained by Bharat Chhetri, the national men's squad will head for the Olympic Park's Riverbank Arena in London after practice games at Balewadi and a stopover in Delhi.
Players will compete on the blue turf with pink lines laid for 2012 Olympic Games and use yellow balls, getting an actual feel of the new colours. Organisers will assess the stadiums and infrastructure, competition equipment and event organisation matters.
Teams use preparatory events prior to the Olympics for a bit of shadow-boxing, with focus on experiments and at the same time conceal formations, tactics and players' positions from opponents.
Nobbs is clear about what is in store for India at the four-nation tournament. “Top teams will show what they can do, reputations are on the line in these Test matches. Everyone may say teams are experimenting. Make no mistake, each team will give 100 per cent, play exactly the way they want to at the Olympics. They may not show one or two things, believe me 98 per cent of the stuff they will show.”
India is lined up to face Australia (May 2), England (May 3), Germany (May 5) and the top two play for the title (May 6).
Australia won the Athens Olympics 2004 hockey gold, England's tryst with Olympic glory happened at Seoul 1988, Germany is the defending champion at Beijing 2008.
Nobbs views the invitation for the Visa International event as a positive happening. “Top four or five teams in the world generally only play each other, it is a little private club, because when top sides play teams ranked lower, you are actually teaching them to play hockey and they will beat you in the end,” he said in a chat at the Balewadi sports complex.
He cautions hockey fans to be prepared to accept losses now, with an eye on actual benefit in reducing flaws noticed at the New Delhi Olympic Qualifiers.
“We need to play top teams in the world. They are significantly better than us, we need to make no bones about it. These sides are really, really good. We need to physically play them, putting India's reputation on the line. At times you are going to get soundly beaten but will learn very quickly. We do have problems in tactics, defence and other areas. This will give us a clue of how quickly we can fix them.”
Nobbs is hopeful about the probables under Chhetri's captaincy becoming familiar with the distractions all Olympians may face at 2012 London Games.
“The other point is that our boys don't realise that an Olympics is not just another hockey tournament. There will be distractions, like living at the Village with elite athletes, superstars in their own sport and earning millions. An Indian player may share a breakfast table with them, there will be entertainment.
“If you take your focus off what you are there for, the results can be disastrous. This sort of test event will give all players an inkling of what to expect later.”
He has an explanation for a new colour code for hockey at London.
“From what I have heard, it is primarily because London Olympic colours are pink and blue. There is some characteristics about the blue turf which will require adaptation. This is information from some of my Australian friends. As teams haven't played on blue yet, even walking into the hockey arena is a big thing and will see how we handle this sort of challenge. We have a lot of competitive matches afterwards, a blue turf is coming up at Ludhiana, then matches against Spain. There is time to rework and regroup before London 2012,” said the chief coach and 1984 LA Olympics participant for Australia.
