Advani disheartened with performance of Indian hockey team

Expressing disappointment over the dismal performance of the Indian hockey team in London Olympics, BJP leader LK Advani today suggested a time-bound approach to project the country as a sporting superpower.
In an interaction with the London Olympics medallists here, the BJP leader praised the efforts of the six sportsperson who won two silver and four bronze medals for the country.
"It fills us with pride to see the performance of our sportsperson in this Olympic... But the present performance of the hockey team is disheartening and we could not win even a single match," he said.
Recalling the golden era of Indian hockey during the captaincy of Major Dhyanchand, Advani said, "I fondly recall the 1936 Berlin Olympics which was the era of Major Dhyanchand and India excelled in hockey. We won golds during that period and no one could score even single goal against us."
There should be a time bound approach and efforts should be made to restore our glory in the game of hockey, he said.
Olympic silver medallists shooter Vijay Singh and wrestler Sushil Kumar along with bronze medallists shuttler Saina Nehwal, boxer M C Mary Kom, shooter Gagan Narang and wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt were present during the felicitation ceremony.
Praising boxer Mary Kom, he said, "It is a moment of pride for us that a mother of two children brought glory to the country with her immense determination and focus."
He specially congratulated Sushil Kumar who won medals in two consecutive Olympics and hoped that the wrestler will bring more accolades for the country.
"India is advancing in all direction, but sports has always been an elusive field for us. But with the performance of these sportsperson, even we can dream of being a great sporting nation," Advani said.
Sports Minister Ajay Maken and acting president of Indian Olympic Association (IOA) VK Malhotra were also present during the occasion.

Another exercise is on; but is there a solution in sight?

Another exercise of chasing a chimera is on. The dismay over the deplorable show by the hockey team in the Olympics is being deflected for the umpteenth time to a committee that is expected to solve the tangle of governance.

The Indian Olympic Association, which authored this mess in 2008, now comes up with a three-member commission to determine who among the claimants — Hockey India or Indian Hockey Federation — will administer the sport.

Painful exercise

To go back to the genesis of the crisis is a painful exercise. If K.P.S. Gill and his associates were guilty of failure in India not retaining its Olympic spot and deserved to be replaced, the scenario now is no less different.

The IOA, then under the command of Suresh Kalmadi, invoked the vague clause “disrepute to the game,” and disaffiliated the IHF. It constituted an ad hoc body, and then created Hockey India, fully aware of its legal and constitutional infirmities. The IOA hoped it would brazen it out with the opposition that cried foul of ignoring the canons of democracy. The Delhi High Court ruled against the disaffiliation.

It is difficult to imagine that the IOA, which has a slew of problems to solve, will disband Hockey India for the inglorious London campaign. Such recourse will receive spontaneous approbation. Hockey India’s record of administration is nothing to speak of with any degree of eloquence.

Tragically perhaps the International Hockey Federation, misled and misinformed, acted in haste.

Cover-up mode

Unable to retract, it ventured into a cover-up mode, raising various issues with the IHF over the failure of the merger from 2000 but continued dealing with the same office-bearers till 2008. How the three-member commission will untangle the imbroglio is a million-dollar question. All previous efforts, including that by the Sports Ministry, met with a dead-end after generating hopes of an accord.

What probably prompts the FIH to direct the IOA for a final decision could be related to India’s commitment to hosting the World Series League. If the FIH believes that a solution will be on the table on August 31, it is hovering in illusions.

A quick-fix remedy to a problem that has eaten away the vitals of Indian hockey for four years is unlikely to be found on one day (August 21).

The three-member commission may have no option but to recommend another ad hoc panel. If pushed to that edge, the IOA-team should keep the officials from both factions out of such a panel. The IOA can even think of forming an advisory committee enlisting members from outside its ambit, inviting senior lawyers and industrialists who share a love for hockey, to end this endemic national malaise. IOA’s urgency underlines a hint of desperation. Is it not time for the factions to realise the damage they have done to the national sport? They will earn the gratitude of all if a formula, embracing the frame-work of democracy, is framed and implemented quickly to extinguish the flames of acrimony, mistrust and egoism. 

#The HINDU

Third straight loss for INDIAN HOCKEY TEAM

A jittery India crashed to a 2-5 defeat against Germany for their third straight reverse in Group B of the Olympic men's hockey competition here Friday.
The Germans, while recording their third consecutive win, gave a fine exhibition of their efficiency based on strong basics, the Indians, after an enthusiastic 15 minutes at the start, simply caved in under pressure.
Leading the German charge was 20-year old Florian Fuchs with three strikes (7th, 16th, 37th) and Oliver Korn (24th) and Christopher Wesley (33rd) chipped in with one apiece while India's goals came from Ramachandra Raghunath, whose 14th minute drag-flick got deflected into the net, and Tushar Khandkar (62nd).
While Germany and the Netherlands are virtually assured of semi-final berths with nine points apiece, India are out of medal contention and have to be content to play for minor positions regardless of their results against South Korea and Belgium in their remaining two league games.
The Indians showed a lot of dash and flair in the first quarter when they had the German defence under pressure and even struck the equaliser, but faded away once the defending champions got going.
As always, India's game was all about instinct and individual skills rather than any structure or plan in sharp contrast to the well-drilled Germans who epitomized team effort.
As in the previous game, it was the Indian midfield and deep defence that were guilty of unpardonable lapses by way of leaving a lot of space for the German forwards and also poor marking inside the striking circle.
The Indian defence was repeatedly caught flat-footed by the long balls that the Germans employed with success while swinging from defence to attack in the blink of an eye. Their slick ball rotation too put the Indians in a tangle.
After repelling early Indian raids, Germany took the lead. Fuchs latched on to a long ball and his first attempt came off goalkeeper Sreejesh's pads, but even as the custodian lost his footing, the German forward reverse flicked to the second post past defenders Manpreet Singh and Ignace Tirkey.
India kept their composure to force a penalty corner that Raghunath converted as a defender unwittingly deflected his attempt past an otherwise solid goalkeeper Max Weinhold.
Thereafter, it was virtually a one-way traffic as Germany stepped up the pace while the back-pedalling left acres of space to be exploited. Fuchs struck again to put the Germans ahead as he swept home a rebound off Sreejesh.
Goals by Korn, who put home another rebound after Sreejesh had foiled veteran Mathias Witthaus for the third goal and just before the break, Wesley scored off a Christopher Zeller pass to give Germany a commanding 4-1 lead.
In less than a minute after resumption, the Germans moved to a 5-1 lead as Fuchs completed a swift Zeller move to virtually seal the game.
While the Germans then seemed to step off the pedal, the Indians managed to put together a few moves leading to a couple of penalty corners, but on the day, Weinhold was simply unbeatable under the German bar.
With about 15 minutes left, Sreejesh made way for the original lead goalkeeper and team captain Bharat Chetri, but by then, the damage was irreparable.
In the last quarter, India with their pride at stake, managed to strike their second goal as Khandekar found the boards with a weak push that Weinhold shockingly allowed between his feet, but it was all too little too late for the Indians.

Pakistan loses to India in Azlan shah cup 2012

Now Azlan Shah Cup having Pakistan(Pak) Vs India(Ind) Hockey Match Live on Thursday afternoon that will be available here during timings as given below. Ipoh Malaysia is creating twist in the Azlan Shah Champions games day by day and on last day both India and Pakistan get shocking news that they are outside from the race of Azlan Shah Final.Indian Last Match against Argentina is most competitive and leaving a marvelous comments from Fans side about this match. India is looking week from start till end.Instead of India got crucial failureSandeep Singh well try to cover up with last minutes goals. First Penalty Corner of India got little bit difficult to cope up with such match.

Now After declaring the result India is out from Azlan Shah Cup Final 2012 and on another hand Pakistan is next target of them. Tournament Title is something that could be victory of Team but defeating Pakistan is considered as Victory of Nation as per India’s perspective. As History of all Kind of Matches tells us that Pakistan Vs India is most entertaining Match as well as many social bindings is still there either that Match will be of Cricket Tournament, Hockey Tournament and what so ever.

India and Pakistan always tried their best to take over from one another in this match beacuse many behavior is depends upon them. So we can say that Pakistan Vs India Hockey Match is moreover than a simple Match in ordinary Schedule. Both teams Condition is same in this Tournament and Victory will not impact upon Points so much instead of Nation impact is still there to entertain them at all. Both teams Pakistan and India shows their least point performance beacuse both are historic competitors in Games and such games in which Pakistan head to head with India is liked by both nations equally. Pakistan National team performance in opening Match was outstanding but after that they consistently lose three match including last day match against Malaysia.

Pakistan are least point scorer according to Azlan Shah Cup 2012 ranking. After losing from Malaysia 31 may 2012 will be the day when both Traditional competitor Pakistan and India will be head to head in Malaysia. Hockey Match history shows that Winning percentage inPakistan Vs India matches is more of Pakistan than India. This is beacuse that Pakistan Hockey team is more passionate in playing against India and try hard to win in every match. This Time it could also be said easily that Pakistan is going to win as per previous result shows. So lets leave Prediction and save this page to communicate about India and Pakistan in this Match that will be Start according to below given Schedule .

India beat Malaysia by 3-2 to revive chances in Azlan Shah Cup

IPOH (Malaysia): Five-time champions India defeated hosts Malaysia 3-2 to put their campaign back on track in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament on Monday.

India has made a great comeback after losing in a thrilling match against Great Britain . 


 But the highlight of the day was title favourites Great Britain's 2-3 shocking defeat at the hands of Argentina which completely opened up the tournament.
New Zealand still leads the standings with nine points from three successive wins, while both Argentina and India lie second with six points from four matches each.
Now , India needs to win Argentina on wednesday to keep going  .
Go India Go !!! Well , lets pray for it .



 

India loses to England

Great Britain hung on to beat India 3-2 and take full points in the Azlan Shah hockey tournament on Sunday.

It was an exhilarating contest with India pushing Britain all the way. In fact, India recovered brilliantly from 0-2 down in the second half but failed to prevent Britain from scoring for the third time.

It was actually thrilling , but at the end it was nothing but lose. Though Indians recovered from the loss by losing to kiwis, this backs them with worries. As said, the blue turf is undoubtedly became the worst nightmare for Indian hockey team to play in. We still can improve better, but it is dead-time rush, since London olympics is 2 months away and we have to cop-up playing in the blue turf in the London olympics .

We are lagging behind . We have chance GO INDIA GO !

India to take on Holland in 1st match

Eight-time champions India will start their campaign against The Netherlands on July 30 in the men's hockey competition of 2012 London Olympics.

The London Olympic Organising Committee, along with the International Hockey Federation (FIH), has unveiled the hockey competition schedule.

India, who have been clubbed with Germany, Korea, New Zealand, Belgium and Netherlands in Pool B, will play their second match on August 1 against the Black Caps.

India, which won its first Olympic gold medal in 1928, will next take on the current Olympic champions Germany on August 3, before locking horns with Korea a day after. India will play Belgium in their last preliminary match on August 7.

The matches will be played at the Riverbank Arena of the Olympic Park.

In the women's competition, Australia take on neighbours New Zealand, while host Great Britain's first match will be against Japan. The current Olympic champions the Netherlands will open campaign against Belgium, who are making their first appearance at an Olympic Games.

"As the London Games approach, the excitement in the hockey world continues to build. Now that we know the official schedule of the men's and women's tournaments, the dream of one of the most highly anticipated Olympic Games is quickly becoming a reality," Leandro Negre, FIH President, said.

"We look forward to working with LOCOG in the next few months to make sure that everything is ready to welcome the world's top hockey players to an unforgettable Games," he said in a release.

Based on world rankings, the 12 teams in both men's and women's sections are divided into two pools of six and each team plays every other in their pool.

The top two teams in each pool qualify for semifinals, with the winners then going head-to-head for the gold medal. The other teams in the two groups play each other to determine final placement.

Indian hockey team to take on Australia in the Olympic test in London

The Indian hockey team begins its run-up to the Olympic Games when it takes on world No. 1 Australia at the Riverbank Arena in London on Wednesday.
The four-nation test event, which also features defending Olympic champions Germany and hosts Great Britain, will give Michael Nobbs's wards a chance to assess their preparation and the conditions at the venue where they will return for the July-August Games.
The Indian team arrived in London on Saturday and had three practice sessions on the new blue synthetic turf, which has pink runaways. Matches will be played with yellow kookaburra balls.
Nobbs said that apart from the conditions, India also need to get used to playing tougher opposition.
"We have to get match practice against the top teams in the world at this stage, we haven't even played one game on a blue turf and the other teams have had six months' training on it," Nobbs told Mail Today from London.
"We need to play against these types of teams to improve, they are a long way ahead of us at the moment, but unless we play them regularly we won't improve."
India will take on Great Britain on Thursday and Germany on Saturday.
India dominated the other teams at the Olympic qualifier, but Nobbs wants to find out which players can make the step up to the next level.
"All the teams will field their best players. We are trying some combinations and this will also tell us who is up to this standard," the Australian said.
But the Indians are yet to adjust to the blue turf.
"We are struggling on it. It is very different to any turf we have played on in the last seven months. It is slower, bouncier and slippery, and the grain of the turf means pushing the ball one way is flat and it bounces the other way. We really need much more practice on this surface," the coach said.
"The other teams have had six months' training on this type of surface." India were thrashed 12-1 by the Aussies in a practice match, but Nobbs explained that with the team facing teething problems on the surface every opportunity will be a learning curve.
"It was our first chance to even walk on it, and then we played the best team in the world. We need to be realistic at this stage and learn from this tournament. Our goal is a top-six finish at the Olympics and this is just the start," he said.
"Team morale is excellent they also know that there may be some more pain before we get better. We will not improve if we continue to play teams lower than us. The reason they are the best is that they play a lot of games against each other and that keeps the level very high. They rarely play lower teams as they would beat them easily and it would most certainly teach the teams how to get better."
There will be a lot to learn from the tournament, Nobbs said.
"We will learn tactically and then implement it as we get to play more games. We have also noticed that Australia is an extremely aggressive and rough team, something we haven't come up against before."
Apart from the turf, the Indians also need to adjust to the vagaries of the English weather.
"It is typical English weather - cold and wet. The venue is fantastic, although it's not finished. It's going to be a great place for the Olympics."

India is confident in winning a medal at LONDON 2012

The star Indian hockey trio of Sandeep Singh, Sardar Singh and Shivendra Singh on Saturday vowed to deliver a medal—winning performance at the upcoming London Olympics, saying they are determined to do well in the biggest sporting event.

India had won the Olympic qualifying tournament in New Delhi to make the cut for the mega event, having missed the bus for the Beijing Games in 2008.

“Under Michael Nobbs (coach), the team’s performance has gone up. If you have seen the Olympic qualifiers, you must have noticed it. We are playing attacking hockey, the old Indian style. I am sure we will do well in London and win a medal for the country,” Sandeep, the star drag—flicker, said.

Sardar, who was the player of the tournament in the qualifiers, said the team is training well and the focus has been on fitness and getting strong in the past few days.

“We are working hard with the Australian coach and the Australian trainer. In the Bangalore camp, the emphasis was on heavy—weight training. The way hockey is being played these days, we need to train that way,” Sardar said.

“We did not qualify for Beijing Olympics and we wanted to do it this time. We did it and we’ll do well now. We have about 15—16 matches at our hands before the Olympics. We will go to London, Spain and also play Azlan Shah before the Olympics. We will utilise these chances to improve,” he added.

The players will shift to Pune for training from tomorrow since the condition of the turf in Bangalore is not playable, forcing the players to focus only on fitness there.

“Somebody could have got injured. The turf was slippery in Bangalore,” Sardar said.