Hockey India League (HIL)

[ssp]

http://fieldhockey.com/index.php/2-unca ... dia-league

This is encouraging news. Maybe we can finally get our best players into the national team (senior and junior).
A sixth franchise will improve the format of the league, but ideally 10 or 12 teams should be the aim in the future. Anyway, lets hope this league endures for more than 2-3 years! That would be better than the PHL & WSH efforts of the past.

[sameerph]

News about closed bid about next year's HIL.

HIL: Ramandeep is the highest paid

Good to see the kind of money that hockey players are getting with HIL.

[srini]

Delhi waveriders defeated punjab warriors by 3-1

[Omkara]

bought tickets for league stage match... guess what 150 bucks for a ticket one can buy tickets for Rs 50 too!! So cheap! IPL cost nothing less than Rs 5000

[ssp]

The matches are being streamed on here:
http://www.starsports.com/hockey/index.html

Entertaining match today, but guess what? 2 of the DW goals could have been avoided if Sandeep could defend properly. Surprisingly Akashdeep set up 2 goals (both times he got lucky with poor defending). Lots of unforced errors from Indian players but also some good stuff. Gurinder Singh looks good again in defence and Gurmail and Gurbaj both played quite well. Rupinder has developed a habit of trying to carry the ball out of defence and then getting tackled (he did this the HWL as well).

[ssp]

Some exciting games so far, but it seems to me that most of the Indian players are clumsy, careless and clueless. Here's my summary so far

Negatives:
Gurjinder is awful...probably even worse than Sandeep! Ragunath can't convert his PC flicks against these top class keepers and continues to play like a donkey at the back and always picks up green and yellow cards. Almost all of the current squad (with a few exceptions, which I will mention later) have problems trapping easy passes, beating a player or even passing accurately. There are some former Indian players (Prabhjot, Tushar, Sandeep, Shivendra)that are laughably inept. They were cr*p in their 'prime' yet managed to have very long stints at international level! Sarvanjit loses the ball too often but very occasionally, he can do something brilliant. Depressingly, quite a few of the junior or newcomers to the national teams don't inspire confidence and will be found wanting against any decent, physical and fit team. In this group, I'd put Akashdeep, Yuvraj, Aiyappa, Uthappa, Talwinder, Chinglensana, Danish, Amit, Satbir, Nitin and Mandeep. Harjot compares badly with the other keepers.

Average
Sunil and Rupinderpal do 2 good things followed by some really awful stuff. The latter has a habit of trying to dribble in dangerous positions and still flies in with mad tackles. Malak does a lot of running but hardly ever creates a goal out of a clever pass or beats a defender. Kothajit can play better but at least he doesn't do silly tackles. Nikon has pace but is easily brushed off the ball.

Positives
Sardar (brilliant everytime), Gurbaj (looks fitter than before and would strengthen the national team), Birendra (excellent), Manpreet (back to his usual form after last 2 tournaments) Gurinder (a decent Indian defender!- I liked him in the first HIL as well) and Harjeet (great potential).

There are a few others that have looked ok, but not in the positives yet; Dharamvir (still mis traps too often although passes much better than before), Gurmail (very mobile + better than his displays for India), Pardeep Mor (maybe a bit weak physically), Varun Kumar (has defended well and a better bet than Ragunath at the back for India). Others in this group are: Mandeep Antil, Ravi Pal and Vikas Pillay

Ramandeep has potential but looks unfit. Bharat Chikara is a favourite of mine, but has not been at his best.

We haven't got too many international quality players to chose from and can't hope to compete with the top nations yet. We badly need 2-3 strong forwards who can hold the ball and withstand physical challenges (Ramandeep could be one of these) and we have to get rid of Ragunath and rely only on Rupinder Pal for PCs.

[sameerph]

Thanks, SSP for such detailed summary. Keep giving this as HIL progresses. Good to know that there are least some Indian players who are in the positive category. Hope while selecting teams for futures rewards those good performances & we do not go back to dead wood.

[ssp]

League phase almost over and we have the 4 expected semi finalists.

The quality of the foreign players is markedly superior to our guys. I have been a little disappointed with the lack of any new players coming through. In fact some of our internationals are embarrassingly bad. Below is an update of our talent pool:

Positives: same players as I listed in previous post - can't really add anyone else

Nearly positive: Lalit, Vikas, Vinaya, Kothajit, Varun Kumar, Gurmail,

Average: almost all the Indian players on display.

Awful: Gurjinder, Ragunath, Sandeep, Uthappa, Nitin (how did he get into the national team), Tushar, Ramandeep (can't do anything right, but I hope this is just because of injury), Chinglensana, Aiyappa, Shivendra

Not impressed by any of the Indian keepers so far. Sreejesh let in a shockingly soft goal today and Harjot seems a bit immobile to me.

The selectors are really blind to select some of the dross I have mentioned. The one thing all Indian players tend to do is mis trap- especially the forwards.I suspect they are a bit too lax and tend to take their eyes off the ball at the crucial moment. Sarvanjit does this 3-4 times in a match. Some of them have glaring deficiencies like staying too upright with no real protection of the ball when in possession (Uthappa, Tushar, Akashdeep) or body and feet position are awful when tackling (Ragunath, Sandeep, Gurjinder).

I have nightmares of the selectors going back to Sandeep if he is highest goalscorer in this HIL!

[sameerph]

Delhi Waveriders win this year's HIL with a win against Punjab Warriors in the final in penalty shootout.

Highest scorer was Sandeep Singh & the award for most promising newcomer went to Akashdeep. These 2 players have been criticised the most by SSP in his reports & he is normally to too far off the mark. We will have to wait for his final comments to see if these 2 guys have shown any real improvement.

[suresh]

Sameer, you may want to correct your statement about SSP's assessment. I think you wrote "to" in place of "not".

[sameerph]

Of course it is " not too far off the mark " for SSP. My mistake.

[ssp]

It will be madness to go back to Sandeep. He may have been top scorer but his PC conversion rate wasn't fantastic and I noticed how his coach took him off when JPW needed to secure a result in the late stages of matches. He was 'protected' by the brilliant Aussies around him. He is still slow and a liability. His footwork in tackling was better, but why did it take him 10 years to work on this glaring deficiency. Typical, lazy Indian player. Once they get into the national team, their attitude is pathetic.

Akashdeep did a few great things, but still loses the ball with awful trapping or gets tackled because he is not strong on the ball- so not convinced he is the answer to our woes up front. As an example, look how effective Glen Turner or Simon Child are near the D.

Glad Delhi won, although the Aussie B team (JPW) were the better team. There were some interesting comments from Terry Walsh (regarding the Indian team) during the final. He mentioned the lack of mental strength (ie panic in key games and the usual abject surrender to Australia), lack of fitness (always an issue), poor defending and wastefulness in front of goal.

So who should we have in the world cup team? On the evidence of this year's HIL, I'd like to go for:

Sreejesh,
Rupinder Pal, Birendra, Gurinder, Varun Kumar, Kothajit
Sardar, Gurbaj, Vikas, Dharamvir (yes, I would pick this guy!!) Manpreet, Harjit
Ramandeep (if fit), Chandi (if fit), Sunil, Affan Youssuf, Lalit, Nikkin

Stand by: Gurmail, Pardeep Mor, Mandeep, Ravi Pal, Mandeep Antil and go with one keeper only. Only one PC expert as well. Ragunath doesn't score often against top keepers anyway.

This lot should be avoided:
Ragunath, Sandeep, Amit Rohidas, Gurjinder
Nitin, Uthappa, Aiyappa, Sarvanjit, Chinglensana
Malak, Akashdeep, Yuvraj or any of the other forwards seen in the HIL.

Ragunath is a liability. Guaranteed to defend with his feet and get green/yellow cards. Unfortunately, the selectors will get 3/4 of the above squads mixed up!

The format for the league seemed flawed to me. We had 25+ league matches to determine the semi finalists. So many matches just to eliminate the bottom 2 teams. For next year, I'd like the HIL expand to 8 teams or the format should be changed for the 'finals'. I'd ensure the top placed team went straight into the final. 2nd v 3rd play off to determine the other finalist.

Otherwise, I enjoyed the action (mostly because the result didn't involve the anguish of India being beaten repeatedly) and the coverage was excellent.

[prasen9]

Is it really wise to go with one goalie? What happens if that guy is injured?

[ssp]

I think most of the top teams took only GK to the Olympics (or could have been the 2012 CT). Yes it is a risk in case of injury, but it is a low risk as I can't remember when a team lost a keeper during a tournament.

[sameerph]

Thanks, SSP for your assessment of our players who played HIL.

From your list to be avoided, I am sure the selectors will go with Raghunath & Akashdeep, possibly Sandeep & Yuvraj too. I hope they do not.