The IHF needs to take a bow

For long now, hockey aficionados have mourned the declining fortunes of the once-undisputed kings of international hockey. Now they have reason to cheer -- the Indian juniors took on 16 of the world's best teams, and emerged triumphant to bring the World Cup home.

The win in itself is cause for prolonged celebration -- but what is exciting hockey fans more is the promise for the future. Even as senior stars of the order of Dhanraj Pillay, Mukesh Kumar et al hit the down slope in their careers, the juniors by their performance indicated that skillful hockey is alive, well and thriving.

Crediting any one person or organization for a great collective triumph would be invidious. But there is no denying that the win is a direct consequence of the Indian Hockey Federation's all out efforts in recent times to dig deep, down to the grassroots level, to try and regain past glories.

It was after India's dismal showing in the 1994 Atlanta Olympics, where the team finished eighth out of 12 teams, that the IHF, under the leadership of former Director General, Punjab Police, K P S Gill got down to the task of revival. And one of the first moves made by the Gill administration underscored the newly-found determination.

Generally, the practice after a heavy defeat is to sack the coach, and then forget all about it. Here, Cedric D'Souza, coach of the Atlanta squad, promptly resigned following the debacle -- but Gill elevated him to the post of executive director, coaching, with the brief to restructure coaching at the junior and senior levels.

D'Souza's work was not immediately visible, with India finishing fifth at Sydney Olympics 2000. But the focus had been on developing junior talent -- and now, a little over six years after the Atlanta debacle, the work has borne fruit to the extent that India finally has a world beating crop of juniors.

And it was no flash in the pan either -- the same crop of youngsters have, in the last couple of years, annexed the Asian championships in the Under-21, Under-18 and Under-16 categories.

''We have what is probably the best back-up program in the world,'' Gill had claimed after the Under-18 team won the Asia Cup last June. At that point, the remark was greeted with cynical chuckles -- but after the World Cup win, it's Gill who is laughing... last, and hard.

Consistency in selection, and a determined effort to mould a team, has been a key to the dream junior run. Almost all the players who did duty in the just-concluded World Cup in Hobart, Australia, have, thus, played together consistently over the last two years, after India lost to Korea in the final of the Junior Asia Cup (Under-21) in May 2000. Again, the IHF eschewed the practice of chopping and changing coaches, and persisted with Rajinder Singh and C R Kumar through most of this two-year span.

Another clever move was to induct several of the juniors into the senior squad that, in July, turned out for the senior World Cup Qualifying Tournament in Edinburgh, Scotland. At that time, the selection of raw, untried juniors for a senior contest of such importance was seen as an imprudent move.

In retrospect, there is no denying that the experience the youngsters got, playing against senior international teams of high calibre, meant that they found playing at the junior level a far easier task.

It has been quite a while since an Indian team won as emphatically as the juniors did in Hobart. A defeat against former champions Australia, and a 2-all draw against Argentina in the league phase, were the only blemishes in a stunning display that culminated in the 6-1 thrashing of Argentina in the final.

Coach Rajinder Singh had, before leaving for Australia, said: ''If our forwards can convert even half the chances that come their way, there is no reason why India cannot return with the title.''

He was proved right. His team, led by the fleet-footed Deepak Thakur, scored 31goals in eight games, 10 of them coming from Thakur himself.

The hallmark of their play was a perfect blending of the Asian and European styles of play -- marrying dazzling individual skills with great teamwork.

Thakur finishing as the top scorer in the tournament is merely one highlight. A potentially more important one is the emergence of a genuine penalty-corner specialist in Jugraj Singh. Penalty-corner conversions have for long been the bane of Indian hockey -- until, that is, this 18-year-old emerged out of the IHF program with an enviable mastery of the drag-flick that saw him convert as many as seven penalty-corners in Hobart. Granting that it is early days yet, Jugraj's showing led fans to believe that India just might have discovered the answer for Pakistan's Sohail Abbas, and Argentina's Jorge Lombi, when it comes to penalty-corner conversions.

The title triumph in Hobart has turned the collective attention to the upcoming senior World Cup, to be played in Kuala Lumpur in February-March 2002. That several of the players who returned in triumph from Hobart will play at the senior level in that tournament is a given. It needs, however, to be pointed out that going overboard, and sending the junior team to play the senior World Cup -- as has been suggested in the euphoria of the Hobart triumph -- could be counter-productive.

It needs to be kept in mind that these are lads, most not yet 20 years of age. Groomed properly and nurtured with care, they could be the ones who spearhead India's climb back to its former pinnacle. Rushed prematurely into the big time, however, they could fold under the pressure and, in the process, undo the hard work of the last few years.

It will be interesting to see what the IHF, which has of late scarcely put a foot wrong, does now.

The path to the crown

Round I:
India beat Canada 5-0
beat Scotland 7-1
beat Spain 3-0
Round II:
drew with Argentina 2-2
lost to Australia 1-2
beat Netherlands 4-3
Semi-final
beat Germany 3-2
Final
beat Argentina 6-1.

Goals scored: 31
Goals conceded: 11

Top scorers: Deepak Thakur was top scorer of the tournament with 10 goals. Jugraj Singh was listed second with seven.

Final positions: 1. India 2. Argentina 3. Germay 4. England 5. Spain 6. Australia 7. Korea 8. Netherlands 9. New Zealand 10. France 11. South Africa 12. Malaysia 13. Scotland 14. Ireland 15. Chile 16. Canada