MATCH REPORTS
DIARY
OTHER SPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
PEOPLE
ARCHIVES

India will do well in KL, says Kaushik

Indian national hockey coach M K Kaushik expressed confidence that the team would do well in next month's Commonwealth Games.

"I am confident that we will do well, even though we are placed in a tough group. It all depends on how well the boys will be able to improve their game", he said.

He was speaking to the media at the Sports Authority of India, Southern Centre, in Bangalore, where the team is undergoing training.

India figures in pool A along with Australia, South Africa, Tobago, Wales and New Zealand. India will play Australia on September 9.

Arch rivals Pakistan figure in pool B along with Malaysia, Kenya, England, Canada and Bangladesh.

"We should make it at least to semi-finals if everything goes well", he said and pointed out that Australia and South Africa, who had beaten England recently, are the toughest opponents. New Zealand was also no pushover, he added.

The Olympian, who took over the reins from his one time captain V Bhaskaran only last month, said that his way of handling things was "straight forward". He had chalked out the programme after discussions with the players and with his predecessors, including Bhaskaran and Cedric d'Souza.

Kaushik said that though the opponents had "better stamina than us we have skills and that can stand us in good stead". Indians could work on the weaknesses of the opponents, he said.

Kaushik said the emphasis had been on scoring field goals and converting penalty corners. The bane of Indian hockey continues to be poor conversions. "There is improvement in this department, but not to the expected levels. We are trying out various methods".

He stressed that the other area which had been focussed on was defence. "We are working on tactics to crowd the defence to prevent the opponents from scoring. In the World Cup we had given gaps that allowed the opponents to score."

Agreeing that he did not have too much time on hand to bring about drastic changes, he said that however, since most of the players were part of the World Cup squad, it was not difficult for him to handle the situation.

He declined to comment on controversial issues, or questions concerning his predecessor.

Asked whether he had problems with captain Dhanraj Pillay or senior players Mukesh Kumar and Sabu Varkey, Kaushik replied with a negative. The trio had come in for stinging criticism from Bhaskaran for their performance in the Utrecht World Cup.

He felt that the senior players should not be moved in and out of the team frequently. "They should be dropped once for all if necessary," he said, and favoured a mixture of experience and youth.

He said that both the new players, forward Gagan Ajit Singh of Air India and defender Cheops d'Costa of Mumbai, were doing well. "They are playing in India. We have to see how they will play against others in international matches".

He said the team had been doing well in practice matches. "We are trying out various combinations. We are also playing with lesser number of players", he added, referring to a ploy frequently used to make the players cover more ground individually.