Rabobank Hockey World Cup,Hague,Net., May31-June 15. 2014

[sameerph]

Indian mens team have now officially qualified for next year's world cup after Australia won the Oceania cup.

These are the teams qualifies so far -

Netherlands: Hosts.
Germany: Continental Champions Europe
Argentina: Continental Champions Pan America
Korea: Continental Champions Asia
Australia: Continental Champions Oceania
England: 3rd place – Hockey World League Semi-Final, Johor Bahru (MAS)
Belgium: 1st place – Rabobank Hockey World League Semi-Final, Rotterdam (NED)
New Zealand: 4th place – Rabobank Hockey World League Semi-Final, Rotterdam (NED)
Spain: 5th place – Hockey World League Semi-Final, Rotterdam (NED).
Malaysia: 5th place – Hockey World League Semi-Final, Johor Bahru (MAS)
India: 6th place – Hockey World League Semi-Final, Rotterdam (NED)

One last place will be taken by winner of the African cup which takes place next week.

[PKBasu]

So no Pakistan -- the team that dominated the World Cup for its first two decades, with the slight exception of 1975...

[Omkara]

India barely holding up

[PKBasu]

Indeed, but we may be on the cusp of a significant rebound.

Pakistan are the leading winners of the World Cup -- having won it four times. Netherlands has 3 titles, Australia and Germany two each, and India 1. Pakistan not being in the hockey World Cup is like Brazil not being in the football one.

[sameerph]

These are the groups -

Pool A: Australia, England, Belgium, India, Spain, and Malaysia.

Pool B: Germany, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Korea, Argentina, and South Africa.

I think we are drawn in a relatively easier pool. Lets see what we can make of it.

[suresh]

Our eternal optimist said this on Nov 20, 2013.

Indeed, but we may be on the cusp of a significant rebound.

We await a statement from our eternal pessimist on our chances in the World Cup.

[ssp]

Here comes the pessimist/realist's view:

We may beat Malaysia and just maybe get a draw against one of the European teams. Forget the Australia match. We are looking at 9-12th place play off (don't know what the format is for the minor placing play offs). The other group may have given us 1 win and 2 draws at best. Or we could repeat our 'feats' of the 2012 Olympics....I don't rule that kind of cr*p performance out. I'd be delighted with 6th place and strong, consistent performances. For that we need top 4 in the pool as a minimum (or 3rd place if the format is the same as the Olympics).

I read an article from Thyagarajah which shows how small the pool of 'selectable' players is and how badly 1-2 injuries affect us:
http://fieldhockey.com/index.php/compon ... ian-hockey

[arjun2761]

I am glad this journalist covers hockey -- however our hockey journalists seem to have the same IQ as our players.

The plethora of foreign coaches and trainers has little or no exposure to explore new talent from tournaments, which are indeed legion.

Is he somehow implying that we have a lot of new talent in these tournaments or that we have lots of tournaments where this talent is on display? I have no doubt that we have pretty good "raw" talent compared to most other countries where hockey is a really minor and mostly amateur sport and fully agree that getting more raw talent to come up is important.

However, most other countries at the top get by using small talent pools but "developing"them into a cohesive and organized team. That is something that we've always struggled to do.

[ssp]

This is the initial squad for the WC:

Goalkeepers: 1. PR Sreejesh, 2. Harjot Singh, 3. Sushant Tirkey
Defenders:4. Gurbaj Singh, 5. Rupinder Pal Singh, 6. V R Raghunath, 7. Birendra Lakra, 8. Gurmail Singh, 9. Kothajit Singh Khadangbam, 10. Gurjinder Singh, 11.Gurinder Singh
12. Sandeep Singh, 13. Vikram Kanth
Midfielders: 14. S K Uthappa, 15. Dharamvir Singh, 16. Chinglensana Singh Kangujam, 17. Sardar Singh, 18. Manpreet Singh, 19. Danish Mujtaba, 20. Satbir Singh
21. Devinder Sunil Walmiki, 22. Vikas Pillay, 23. Jasjit Singh
Forwards: 24. Nikkin Thimmaiah, 25. Nithin Thimmaiah, 26. S V Sunil, 27. Mandeep Singh, 28. Akashdeep Singh
29. Ramandeep Singh, 30. Affan Yousuf, 31. Yuvraj Walmiki
32. Talwinder Singh, 33. Lalit Upadhyay

No place for the most promising player (in my opinion) of the recent HIL; Harjeet Singh but most of the dross that habitually get into the team (and some old time failures) get in. In this latter list, I am talking about: Ragunath, Gujinder Singh (which planet are the selectors on??), Sandeep Singh (wtf?), Uthappa, Nithin. Not convinced about Akashdeep, Chinglensana, Danish, Satbir or Talwinder. All of these are weak on the ball and repeatedly lose possession.

Glad to see Gurbaj, Gurinder, Vikas and Lalit included.

[mann]

India need to do much hard work. sixth position not good, after all its our national sports.Best wishes Indian hockey team

[ssp]

This is the WC tam:

Captain - Sardar Singh, Goalkeepers - PR Sreejesh and Harjot Singh, Defenders - Gurbaj Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh, VR Raghunath, Birendra Lakra, Kothajit Singh Khadangbam and Manpreet Singh, Midfielders - SK Uthappa, Dharamvir Singh, Jasjit Singh and Chinglensana Singh, Forward - SV Sunil, Ramandeep Singh, Akashdeep Singh, Nikkin Thimmaiah and Mandeep Singh.

As usual, a few insane decisions. There are 4 players that will let us down repeatedly- Ragunath (yellow and green cards and the opposition's chief PC getter!), Uthappa (will lose possession almost every time), Chinglensana (weak on the ball and contributes nothing), Akashdeep (mis traps simple passes and gets dispossessed every time).

We also have Dharamvir and Mandeep who have trouble stopping the ball on most occasions. Not sure about Jasjit Singh either.

We had better options: Gurinder Singh (for Ragunath), Devinder Walmiki (back up PC option and replacement for Uthappa), Vikas Pillay (for Chinglensana) and Lalit (for Akashdeep). I would have taken Affan Youssuf for Mandeep and Harjit for Jasjit.

History tells us that we will struggle against all the teams in the group stages (and a thrashing from Australia is guaranteed), but a draw and a win (possibly against Malaysia) would be decent going. 2 draws and a win may give us 4th place.

I expect us to be for playing 9-10th place but if results go our way, maybe 7-8th place is possible. For the latter we need to finish 4th in our group. I expect the group to finish like this: Australia, Belgium, England, Spain, India and Malaysia....although we could easily swap with Malaysia (if we play like the 2012 Olympics).

[bhagatghavri]

That's sound information....................Thanks for this post.

[jayakris]

bhagatghavri - This is your first warning. If you continue to arbitrarily respond to old posts and have nothing to say, you will be banned some time soon. It is coming to the point of being annoying to the readers. Either respond to any of the posts that make fun of your posts or post something sensible on your own. If not, I will assume you to be a semi-intelligent software, and ban you. Your fair warning.

Mod, Jay

[Prashant]

I am wondering if bhagvatgavri is someone who doesn't speak English, and if he is using our board as a place to learn. That may explain why he doesn't respond to our messages, but merely plunges on with his own.

[Atithee]

Prashant, that is exactly what I was wondering. S/he may be practicing her/his English writing skills and/or surfing the net. Now that is a post-PKB level benefit of doubt.

But, bhagatghavri would have to respond to these posts stating that it is indeed the case; else, I agree that this is a fair warning before being banned.

(related to a post in the Roland Garros thread by Prashant but here due to the PKB reference above):
On a given day even Berdych can lose to a qualifier in the first round, although very unlikely. Tennis is a strange game. There are days when you are not on and the margin between win and loss is small, especially on the men's side. A qualifier maybe an ex-top 20 player making a comeback after an injury or a dope ban. So, it is possible.