Hockey World League: Another day, another loss

In the two days of the Hero Hockey World League, crowds have been woefully thin, with coaches and players making little attempt to disguise their disappointment about the lack of spectators. The only time in the day the stadium fills somewhat is for the Eight o’clock match featuring India. These few hundreds who brave the evening chill while chanting, clapping and waving the Indian flag are perhaps some of the sport’s biggest supporters in the country. For the second day in a row, however, they would watched their side surrender abjectly.

The result this time – 3-1 in favour of New Zealand – is bad enough. The nature of the performance put forth by the team was for much of the game cringeworthy. You know you have done badly when even the rival coach sounds sympathetic. “You have just got a new coach. India need time to develop their team,” New Zealand’s Colin Batch helpfully suggested after the match.

It’s indeed easy to feel for coach Terry Walsh. He has only been with the team for a few months. He doesn’t have a full-strength squad as several first-choice players are injured. Before the tournament, he had said that his goal for the January 10-18 event would be to see how the team had progressed and to begin implementing new techniques and strategies.

Sardar starts on bench

India’s captain Sardar Singh surprisingly didn’t start the game. It was an attempt to shake up the midfield. There may have been sound logic but the result was that 50 seconds after the first whistle, Shea McAleese sliced the defence open and scored through open play. India could have struck right back in the 3rd minute when consecutive penalty corners were earned. The first one led to the second, which wasn’t even stopped cleanly.

To be fair, India made some interesting plays then on but there was nothing of consequence with the forwards getting bullied  by the Kiwi defence. SV Sunil got a good diagonal cross from the left corner in the ninth minute but there was no one to receive the ball. Sardar Singh eventually came on after eight minutes but he was effectively contained by defender Kane Russell. Yuvraj Walmiki and Nikkin Thimmaiah had chances but were unable to control the ball. Indeed, the Indians throughout the game found it hard simply to pass consistently or even trap cleanly. While the forwards errors could be understood to some extent, flubs were made by the defenders even when there wasn’t any pressure on them. Thus New Zealand themselves had a couple of chances