Newly appointed Arjun Halappa optimistic for revival of Indian hockey – Field Hockey News
Arjun Halappa, the newly appointed skipper of the Indian field hockey team is quite optimistic about revival of their past glory. In his views, the Indian team will surely bring back their glorious period. However, the Indian players will have to play a
competitive style of hockey and earn a berth in the 2012 London Olympics.
Halappa has been appointed as skipper of the national team for the upcoming Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Cup scheduled to be played from May 5 to 15 in Malaysian city of Ipoh. The skipper will have a big task on hands, as they will contest the tournament without
fabled hockey pros including Sardara Singh, Sandeep Singh and Rajpal Singh.
Arjun is the second after Anil Aldrin from Karnataka State that has been appointed at this post. While speaking to the media, the skipper was of the view that they had started playing European style hockey under the supervision of a Spanish-born coach.
He wants a continuation of policies started by Spaniard Jose Brasa, who coached the national squad last year. He declared the execution of plans and training modules of Brasa as outstanding.
The skipper stated, “We have believed in a system for the past two years and people have started realizing its benefits. We are playing a little bit like the Europeans with emphasis on man-to-man marking and thrust on defence where even the forwards fall
back to help the defenders.”
He further stated that their main objective was to earn a spot in the Olympics Games. Wishing to contest the mega event under the training of Brasa, he said that the continuity of the policies helps the team to achieve their goals. Harendra Singh, the national
coach is working with the team for some time, thus he is understood by the players.
As compared to the past, a young squad has been announced for the Malaysia-based tournament. Few experienced players are taking a rest while the legendary pair of Sandeep Singh and Sardara Singh has not been included in team. The two players were playing
club hockey in Belgium and failed to report in time for the training camp. However, the captain was of the opinion that it would be a great chance for youngsters to prove their worth in the international hockey.
He said, “It is a big challenge for the youngsters and for me as the captain. Undoubtedly, the senior guys are not going to play after another five-six years. So it is important to develop a strong back-up line, whose services can be utilized if any emergency
comes up.”
Commenting about the weak areas of the team, he said that the defence would not be impressive due to unavailability of Sardara Singh. However, he added that he along with the coach will try to over-come the missing areas.
The currently announced Indian squad is also unimpressive in the penalty conversions which can dash the hopes of hockey lovers. Dhananjay Mahadik and Diwakar Ram are part of the team but they are not much in successive in point scoring.
However, the skipper said that the senior players will rejoin the team ahead of the Olympic qualifiers, adding that they will have had eight months to prepare themselves for mega events including the Champions Trophy and the Four-Nations Cup in Australia.
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