I have been extrememly satisfied with the performances the Indian team has put in after former player Joaquim Carvalho has taken over the responsibilities of the Indian team coach. I think he has really united the team again into one cohesive unit and his mantra of agrressive running and quick hockey seems to be paying off. With a 3rd place finish in the Sultan Azlan Shah tournament in Malaysia recently , and now some decent performances against Belgium and Argentina although the latter was a defeat in the Champions Challenge, we look to be covering back some lost ground.
Suddenly, it doesnt feel like we are caught up in David and Goliath style encouters. Our hockey is now aggressive. One key development is the approach to win more penalty corners which is very satisfying. This is an approach adopted by the many european nations and has worked satisfactorily for them time and again. Although, a penalty corner specialist, is really required to complete our puzzle. I see a champion penalty corner specialist in Len Ayyappa who has repeatedly performed well in PHL and being one of the top scorers, deserved a berth in the national unit, which quite unfairly got lost to politics as usual.
This is also a time, when the Indian media should become more proactive in supporting the developments in Indian hockey by giving it the attention it deserves. So far, as usual, they have been sluggish, and have shown their ignorance and incompetence to really do anything good for the country; which is something we have come to expect of our media over the years. Ahh well... lets hope repeated good performances will finally pull the attention of the media.
