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DEAR REDIFF

Fit Pillay leads India's challenge

Harpal Singh Bedi in Utrecht

India, boosted by the fitness certificates given to skipper Dhanraj Pillay and Baljit Singh Saini, nevertheless faces a daunting task as it opens its World Cup hockey campaign against formidable Germany at Galgenwaard Stadium here on May 21.

All the 12 teams taking part in this 9th edition of the men's competition will be seen in action at the two stadiums on the opening day itself.

While four matches -- Poland-Australia, Holland-Canada, Spain-England and India-Germany -- will be played at Galgenwaard (which is actually FC Utrecht's soccer field, temporarily converted to hockey with the aid of the DD Action Turf), the Pakistan-Malaysia and Korea-New Zealand games are slated to be played at the nearby Frockey Stadium.

The sore note in the otherwise pepped-up Indian camp is the news that ace forward Rajiv Mishra will not play. His place has been taken by Air India centre-forward Devinder Kumar. The forward line starting tomorrow, thus, will in all probability be Mukesh Kumar, Dhanraj Pillay, Sabu Varkey, Rajesh Chauhan and Harbhajan Singh, with the bench strength being Samir Dad and Devinder Kumar.

Coach Vasudevan Baskaran, who represented India in two World Cups, was hopeful that his team would give a good display. "We have nothing to lose and all the experts cannot rule us out from making the knock-out stage. Of course, luck will play a major role as well but our boys will have to put their heart and soul to give match-winning performances," Bhaskaran said.

"This will be the first time I am coaching the senior World Cup squad, I sincerely hope we prove the prophets of doom wrong, like we did in the Junior World Cup at Milton Keynes last year," the Chennai-based coach added.

Bhaskaran admitted that the first two matches against Germany and Holland are very critical for the team's advancement to the next round. "We will treat every match like a final, I am also keeping my fingers crossed that our key players perform to their potential and that we are not saddled with any more injury problems," he said.

In addition to Germany and Holland, India is pitted against Asian champions South Korea in their third match. The aggressive Koreans, who have won the Asian Games title twice, beating both India and Pakistan in a span of eight years, definitely cannot be taken lightly.

The Koreans are adept and authoritative at penalty corners, and could record some significant performances here.

They finished third behind Australia and Germany in the six-nation Sultan Azlan Shah Trophy at Ipoh in January this year -- in the process holding Germany 3-3 and trouncing Malaysia 8-1, besides recording two fine wins over New Zealand.

The Koreans have an enviable recent record against India, having beaten the eight-time Olympic champions in the 1993 Asia Cup and 1994 Asian Games finals, both held at Hiroshima. In addition, they beat India in the Indira Gandhi Gold Cup in 1995 and 1996, winning titles on both occassions.

The other two teams with India in Pool A are 1976 Montreal Olympic champion New Zealand, and Canada.

New Zealand, under coach Keith Goring, have qualified for the world after a gap of 12 years. This will be their fifth outing in this competition, having finished at number seventh on three occassions.

In the recently concluded double-leg Colorado Cup in Australia, the Kiwis pushed India to the last position in the four-nation tourney.

They have few dependable and experienced players including captain and goalkeeper Scott Anderson, striker John Radovonich, wingers Umesh Parag and Bevan Hari.

The 23-year-old Auckland-based Hari was responsible for putting right half Baljit Singh Saini on the injured list when his full blooded swing in the striking circle hit the Indian medio on his left eye.

Canada appear to be the weakest of the six teams in this pool. They have qualified for this World Cup in place of Argentina, who are missing this premier event for the first time.

The Canadians, who last played in this competition in 1990 at Lahore, have a dismal record in this tournament. They finished tenth at London in 1986 and 11th on two other occasions -- at Buenos Aires in 1978 and also at Lahore.

The Canadians have come here after a tour to South Africa last month and had a ten-day training stint at Amsterdam.

The top teams in Pool B most likely to make the knock-out rounds are defending champion Pakistan and 1986 winners Australia.

The other teams in the fray in this half are Atlanta Olympic silver medallist Spain, England, Malaysia and Poland.

Though on paper this pool looks weaker, both Spain and England are capable of springing upsets. Spain had finished runners up in the inaugural World Cup at Barcelona in 1971, losing out to Pakistan in the final, although they had defeated the Asian giants in the preliminary pool match.

Their experienced coach Toni Forrelat is hoping that the Atlanta performance will be repeated. The spaniards have been the big surprise in the last two years.

In last year's Champion's Trophy at Adelaide, they finished third and won their first medal at this event. They also won the World Cup qualifier at Kuala Lumpur. They have a very dependable goalkeeper, Ramon Jufresa and offensive players like Juan Escarre, Javier Arnau and Pablo Amat.

Pakistan coach Ayaz Mehmood, who was a member of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic gold medal-winning team, was optimistic that with the recall of Shahbaz (Sr), the winning ways of his team would return.

"Shahbaz is still the world's best schemer, capable of ripping apart the seams of rival defence. If our inner trio -- Shahbaz, Kamran Ashraf and skipper Tahir Zaman -- moves in tandem, then we should be nearly there," the coach said, adding that Shahbaz (Jr) was fit and his run-downs and cross hits from the left flank would add more punch to the Pakistan attack.

''We have also groomed Sohail Abbas for the penalty corners. He gave a good display in the series against India and has performed consistently in our training sessions,'' the former Pakistan centre-half said.

Pakistan manager Islahuddin shared his coach's viewpoint and added that they had worked on their grey areas in the mid field play. ''Mohammad Usman is a tireless workhorse in the right mid field, Ahmad Alam has been a very difficult goalkeeper to beat. In defence, no doubt we will feel the absence of Danish Kalim who is injured, but the dependable Naveed Alam should be able to withstand the pressure,'' Islahuddin said.

However, despite the front, the inside buzz is that the team is divided into two camps, pro- and anti- Shahbaz.

The team management's decision to drop Mohammad Sarwar from the final squad, replacing him with Rahim Khan, has also come under considerable criticism.

A Pakistan official questioned the need to bring Sarwar to Utrecht, since he was badly injured. The star player had sustained a bad shoulder injury in an accident, but was still made part of the side only to be dumped at the last moment.

Interestingly, coach Ayaz Mahmood and manager Islahuddin had both voted against the inclusion in the side of Shahbaz, and his brother in law Tahir Zaman, who is actually leader of the team.

Ayaz Mahmood's contention was that both these players had slowed down considerably and even though they might look impressive against Asian teams where the premium is more on stick work, they would be considerably hard pressed when playing against the tougher, fitter European nations.

According to a senior Pakistani journalist, in Utrecht to cover the World Cup, Islahuddin was in fact on the verge of resigning on the Shahbaz issue, but stayed back since his resignation would have led to a chaotic situation within the team.

During the team trials in Lahore in the last week of April, Islahuddin had made it clear that he did not need Shahbaz and Tahir Zaman in the side and in this, he had the backing of coach Mahmood.

Ayaz was further angry with Shahbaz for suggesting that a foreign coach should be brought in. His brother in law, Zaman, had also supported the idea.

Shahbaz and Tahir Zaman, who played in the Dutch league, then had brokered a deal with Holland's penalty corner expert Toon Seipman, who arrived in Lahore without the knowledge of Islahuddin and Ayaz.

Islahuddin and Ayaz cold-shouldered the Dutch expert, who was in Pakistan for two weeks, and did not give him much work nor did they fully utilise his services.

The manager and coach, at the time, were angry that the Pakistan Hockey Federation had bypassed them and brought in the Dutch expert at the behest of the two star players.

Sources within the Pakistan side suggested that the deal was struck because Shahbaz and Zaman wanted to play in the Dutch league in the coming season as well, and hoped that Seipman would make the arrangements for them with some other club, as the one they had with their present club had expired.

It is also being alleged that during the practise sessions, while the rest of the team were asked to do at least 15 rounds of the ground, Tahir Zaman and Shahbaz would only do six. This is being regarded as gross indiscipline.

The Shahbaz-Ayaz feud dates back to the late eighties, when Ayaz took over as coach. A strict disciplinarian, he made even Shahbaz, then the acknowledged superstar of world hockey, sit on the bench once for indiscipline.

Shahbaz, since then, has attempted to get Ayaz removed, while the latter wanted Shahbaz and Zaman out of the side. In the end, everyone stayed -- in the "national interest".

Islahuddin, again, was persuaded not to resign during the last stages of the World Cup preparations, while Tahir and Shahbaz were told not to create needless controversies that would affect the team morale.

At one stage, according to sources, the PHF was willing to drop Zaman to placate Islahuddin, but the PHF president, Akthar Rasool, refused to agree to the move.

As of now, a temporary truce has been declared in the national interest. But how long it will work, is the question that remains to be answered -- and on that answer could depend Pakistan's performance in the premier competition.

Back to a review of the sides, and Australia have the ability to lift the the coveted cup with their high work-rate and commitment to an attacking and attractive style. They possess at least four to five of the best players in the world, and their sharpness appears to have returned under the coaching of Terry Walsh and his deputy Jim Irvine.

Walsh said, "We have the best attack line in the world, with the ability to fall back during the rival counter-attacks.''

The Aussies, who have never won an Olympic title, have come here after winning two championships this year. They annexed the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup at Ipoh in January and the double-leg Colorado Cup at Sydney and Melbourne last month.

Their speedy forward line consisting of Baeden Choppy, Jay Stacy, Stephen Davies, Paul Lewis and Mathew Smith, have between them played 815 internationals -- an awesome record.

The team is being led by 30-year-old Canberra full back Michael York and has the experienced David Wansbrough as centre half, in addition to goalkeepers Lachlan Dreher and Damon Diletti, both among the best in the world.

The two teams which can give the Aussies a run for their money are host Holland and their neighbours Germany.

Holland, the current Olympic champions, are coached by Roelant Oltmans and will be relying on the cool Stephen Veen to orchestrate their attacks.

There is likely to be a very heavy dependence on the tall Bram Lomans who has the reputation of continuing the Dutch tradition of penalty corner sweep-push conversions.

The two-time world and three-time Champions Trophy winners will have the advantage of home crowd support, but that can also put them under pressure because of higher level expectations.

Their arch European rival Germany will make every effort to take the trophy home for the first time. They have a reputation of starting cautiously and improving with every outing.

Their low profile coach Paul Lissek was not forthcoming in his statements, contenting himself with a "Let us wait and watch'

Germany, who also have an enviable penalty corner conversion record, will be looking at 21 year old Mark Schrieber for their thrust. He however is not in the class of Carsten Fischer, the former star who, as an orthopaedic specialist, is now a member of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) medical committee.

England, Poland, and Malaysia are not expected to cause many ripples in the 12-day tournament, even though the British have sought the services of Australians Barry Dancer as coach and Chris Spice as performance director.