ndia lost the 1999 Pepsi Indo-Pak Hockey Series 3-6 to Pakistan. Inexperience of the players, aided by incompetence of the IHF selection panel, reduced the hockey series into a total farce. Nine newcomers were blooded by India during the current series, in a drastic breakup of the Asiad gold-medal winning combination. The average age of the Indian team was 23 years.

To put the team selection in perspective, it is like the BCCI dropping Sachin Tendulkar, Mohammed Azharuddin, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid for the Indo-Pak cricket series (also held at the same time), and fielding some Vizzy Trophy hopefuls instead. On top of it, the BCCI President would go on to say that he did not owe an explanation to the sacked six. This shows that complete high handedness of the IHF officials, and complete ingratitude to the Asiad gold medal winning team members.

The Indian team's dependence on the six sacked Asiad stalwarts, and the lack of a good second string are matters of concern. It was obvious that the defence and mid-field, which was virtually unchanged from the 1998 Indo-Pak hockey series, had proved unequal to the task without the sacked players.

While Pakistan has created the nucleus of its Olympic campaign, India comprehensively destroyed whatever was available. The present Pakistani squad looks forward to bigger challengs in the Azlan Shah Cup, Champions Trophy and the pre-Olympics at Osaka in 1999.

"We need do a lot of work in the goalkeeping and penalty corner departments," said the losing Indian coach V. Bhaskaran, who was otherwise satisfied by the grit and determination shown by his wards. Bhaskaran added that one of the important thing which the boys have to learn is fast counter attacks, which is crucial in modern hockey.

The find of the series for India was striker Gagan Ajit Singh, who with 5 goals was the second highest scorer for India after Baljit Singh Dhillon.

The pressures of playing a 9-test rubber, separated only by the travelling day for much of the three-week period, took a heavy toll on the injury front. Ramandeep Singh and Prabhakaran at Bhopal, Samir Dad at Hyderabad, and Daljit Singh Dhillon were injured in the Indian leg of the series. They did not make the trip to Pakistan, making way for half-back Nausher Singh and forward Brojen Singh, who participated in the Cairo tournament. In Pakistan, ace schemer Baljit Singh Saini joined the injured list, while Mohammed Riaz (hurting shin), Gagan Ajit Singh (ankle injury) and Anil Aldrin (back problem) carried on despite not being fully fit.

Incidentally, Junior World Cup star Rajiv Mishra missed the entire Indo-Pak hockey series. He has still not recovered from the knee injury that put him out of the 1998 World Cup. He is under the care of Olympian Dr. Vece Paes, the father of Olympian Leader Paes.

he following scene happened repeatedly in the 1999 Indo-Pak hockey series:

Sameer Dad or Mohammed Riaz would take the penalty corner push, either Dilip Tirkey or Anil Aldrin would hit the direct shot, and Rajesh Chauhan would go for the rebound. A variation would see Baljit Singh Dhillon scoop the ball in. The end result was a goal only 9% of the time (5 goals in 55 attempts).

India scored 21 goals overall. Baljit Singh Dhillon emerged as India's leading goal scorer in the Indo-Pak series with 9 goals (7 matches).

In contrast, Pakistan had an incredible 28% penalty corner conversion rate (11 goals in 39 attempts). Pakistan scored 26 goals overall.

Full-back Sohail Abbas was the top goal scorer on either side with 10 goals - 5 in each leg of the series. Sohail Abbas has been Pakistan's leading scorer in recent tournaments, including the Bangkok Asian Games where he scored 5 goals. Both Sohail Abbas and Baljit Singh Dhillon were named Man of the Series, for Pakistan and India respectively.

It has been two decades since India had a world class penalty corner specialist. Therein lies the root cause of Indian hockey’s decline. Stray reports have trickled in the Indian press that IHF officials have arranged some sessions with Bovelander when the Indian team travels to Germany in June this year for a Test series.

-- Umpire's Report, filed after the inaugural test in Delhi

t is 11:30 am on Feb 4, the day after the first game in the Indo-Pak series. As I am sure you will know by know, Pakistan won yesterday by 4-3 in extra-time. The first half was slow with both sides testing each other out, but the second half and extra-time took off. The were no contentious issues and the two teams and the two umpires seem to be getting on well!

After the game last night, we were hosted by the Pakistan ambassador at his residence. We met the Indian and Pakistani cricket teams who are also in Delhi for a test match. Mohammed Azahuddin knew Norman Hughes, the ex-England player from his time in Yorkshire! After that, we went to the Habitat Centre for dinner and were given garlands and bouquets of flowers. Try getting past those customs! Today we have lunch with the Prime Minister before we leave for Bhopal at night.

The camraderie is good and David Gentles is a great room-mate. The Indians have been fantastic hosts.

-- Hamish Jamson, courtesy of FieldHockey.com

ockey and the city of Bhopal. This was the city which boasted of a team to take on the rest of the world at the time of the subcontinent’s partition. Hockey indeed is the second religion for people in Bhopal.

Hockey was a passion followed with great fervour in the ‘Old City’ areas - Ibrahimpura, Jahangirabad and Gillori. From amongst these emerged Bhopal’s first two Olympians - Ahmed Sher Khan and Ahsan Mohammed Khan, who played alongside hockey wizard Dhyan Chand in the gold-medal winning 1936 Berlin Games squad. This was the last hockey team of undivided India.

Some of the leading Pakistan players were products of Bhopal. Latif-ur-Rahman and Akhtar Hussain have the unique distinction of having represented both India and Pakistan in the Olympics. Another Bhopal stalwart, Anwar Ahmed Khan, is considered among the best to have played for Pakistan.

Among Indian internationals, two crafty left-wingers, Inam-ur Rehman and Shahid Noor left an indelible impression during the 1968 Olympics and 1971 World Cup respectively. Aslam Sher Khan, son of Olympian Ahmed Sher Khan, is Bhopal's best known hockey player. Aslam was a double Olympian, as well as a member of the victorious 1975 World Cup winning team. Jalaluddin’s 1984 Olympic Games appearance was the last time Bhopal had a player in the Indian Olympic team.

Recent Bhopal products include Altaf-ur Rehmanm, who played in the series against Australia in 1997, and junior World Cupper Sameer Dad, who has become an integral part of the Indian forward line.

Among the four venues in India for the 1999 Indo-Pak series, Bhopal was the only venue which had a sell-out audience (with tickets priced from Rs. 50 to Rs. 200). Incidentally, the Aish Bagh stadium in Bhopal can seat 12,000. Excited hockey lovers even made a beeline to the stadium hoping to see their heroes practice. This was the first visit by a Pakistan hockey team to the city of Bhopal, though the city has hosted the Australian and South African teams earlier.

On a sobering note, it should be borne in mind that squabbles between factions of the local associations have disenchanted youngsters, who have also fallen to the lure of cricket in large numbers. It was Aslam Sher Khan after all who expressed the hockey player's frustration in his autobiography, "To Hell with Hockey."  

epsi sponsored the Indian leg of the Indo-Pak hockey series for the second year in a row. A cash prize of Rs 15,000 was presented by Pepsi for the man of the match in the Indian leg (Gagan Ajit Singh - Delhi, Mohammed Sarwar - Bhopal, Dr. Atif Bashir - Hyderabad and Mohammed Riaz - Chennai). The Pepsi Man of the Series (Indian leg) and a cash prize of Rs. 20,000 was presented to Dr. Atif Bashir.

Mr. Harith Nagpal, Vice President - Marketing, said his company would continue to associate itself with the promotion of sport, and hockey in particular.

The Oil and Natural Gas Commission announced a Friendship Award of Rs. 2 lakhs, 1 lakh for each team. This was presented by the regional manager, Mr. P. Anand, after the Chennai game.

ndia-Pakistan hockey encounters go back over 4 decades, starting from the 1956 Melbourne Olympics hockey final. Hassan Sardar has been the scourge of Indian defences, scoring 22 goals in the Indo-Pak encounters to lead the Pakistani individual tally. Penalty corner specialist Sohail Abbas is on par to break Hassan Sardar's record, as early as next year. The top-scoring Pakistanis are:

Player	Goals
Hassan Sardar	22
Hanif Khan	13
Kaleemullah	13
Sohail Abbas	13
Shahbaz Ahmed	12
Manzoor Sr.	11
Kamran Ashraf	10

Statistics compiled by Mazhar Jabalpuri of Dawn

gypt is proving to be a force in African hockey, threatening to compete with South Africa and Kenya for Africa's qualifying spot in Sydney 2000. They proved they are no pushovers by winning the inaugural 5-nation Akbar El Youm hockey tournament, held in Cairo from February 2 to 9, 1999.

The following are the results of India's matches:

Date	Result	Scorers for India
Feb 2	India 4 - Kenya 1	Mukesh Kumar Jr., Harbhajan Singh, Brojen Singh
Feb 3	Canada 2 - India 1	Brojen Singh
Feb 5	India 2 - Egypt 1	Rajinder Singh, Harbhajan Singh
Feb 7	India 4 - Malaysia 1

The points total at the end of the league phase were:

           P W D L GF GA GD Pts
India      4 3 0 1 11  5 +6  9 
Egypt      4 3 0 1  8  2 +6  9
Canada     4 2 0 2  8  7 +1  6
Malaysia   4 1 0 3  6 12 -6  3
Kenya      4 1 0 3  4 11 -7  3

In the final played on February 9, with IHF President K. P. S. Gill in the stands, India failed to maintain their fine run, losing to Egypt 1-3. Left-out Brojen Singh scored the lone goal for India from a penalty corner.

alaysia, Spain and Belgium are in the race to host the 2002 World Cup. Egypt, who had been expected to bid as well, opted out of the race. The host will be named by the 20-member FIH executive body at their meeting in Brussels on March 11.

Of the three bidding countries, Spain (1971) and Malaysia (1975) have hosted the event before. Incidentally, the only country to have hosted the World Cup twice is Holland in 1973 (Amstelveen) and 1998 (Utrecht).

Belgium, in their bid, have offered to host both the men's and women's tournament simultaneously as Holland did in the Utrecht World Cup. However, FIH may not want to consider Belgium in the interests of spreading the World Cup around the continents. Belgium shares a border with Holland, the hosts of the 1998 World Cup.

The Malaysian Hockey Federation submitted an 84-page bid document and will be sending a delegation, headed by deputy president, Datuk Seri P. Alagendra, to make a formal presentation before the FIH executive board on March 11. 

One of the considerations for FIH approval is fan support, and going the crowd response in the Commonwealth Games, Malaysia enjoys an advantage in this department over Spain.

It is likely that should Malaysia get the men's tournament, Belgium could land the women's tournament.  

he 21st Men's and the 7th Women's Champions Trophy will be held at Brisbane, Australia from June 10 - June 20, 1999. The participating countries are:

Women : Argentina, Australia, Germany, Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand

Men : Australia, England, Korea, Netherlands, Pakistan, Spain

ndian hockey faces a 3-month layoff, with the cancellation of the 6-nation invitational in Dubai (March), and the lack of an invitation for the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia (April). The Dubai tournament had to be cancelled due to the lack of a sponsor.

The non-inviting of 2-times defending champion India for the Azlan Shah tournament is being attributed to IHF President Gill having contested against Azlan Shah in the AHF elections, though losing heavily in the bargain. Malaysia also did not appreciate the fact that India had sent its second-string team for last year's tournament.

Pakistan stopped participating in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup after Col. Mudassar Asghar lost to Dato Alagendra in 1994 on a casting vote by Azlan Shah of Malaysia. However, Pakistan is taking part in this year's edition of the six nation tournament, being held from April 2 to 10 in Malaysia.

There will be no international matches for India till the test series against Germany, in Germany, in June.

The next big tournament after that is the Asia Cup, to be hosted by India in October.

he Indian women's team will participate in a 4-nation hockey tournament to be held in Australia from April 28 to May 9. World champions Australia, Asian champions South Korea and African champions South Africa are the other teams participating in this tough tournament.

The first coaching camp in Patiala (January 15 - February 10) has resulted in 26 probables being selected for the next coaching camp at NIS Patiala before the final team is selected. The probables are:

Goalkeepers	Tingongleima Chanu, Helen Mary, Suman Doswal
Full Backs	Sandeep Kaur, Amandeep Kaur, Mary Stella Tirkey, Silbiniya Toppo, Manti Das, Sarita Khatri
Half Backs	Sita Gussain, Lakshmi Shree, Suraj Lata Devi, Sunita Dalal, Samurai Tete, Shaina, Nutan
Forwards	Pritam Rani Thakran, Kamala Dalal, Jyoti Sunita Kullu, Nidhi Khullar, Manjinder Kaur, Neha Singh, Pakpi Devi, Charanjit Kaur, Paulina Surin, Ruhi Dhillon

efending champions Punjab renewed their lease on the men's hockey title in the V National Games at Imphal (February 14 - 25). Punjab defeated Maharashtra (their opponents in the Bangalore National Games final). Maharashtra got some consolation by bagging the gold in women's hockey, defeating Bihar. This was the first time that both the men's team and women's team had entered the National Games hockey final at the same time.

Maharashtra had not fielded its best team, as Dhanraj Pillay, Sandeep Somesh and Sabu Varkey had declined to play. Led by former international Ravi Nayakar, Maharashtra had no player from outside Mumbai. Clarence Lobo and Kuldip Sandhu accompanied the team as coach and manager respectively.   

orty two teams will be taking part in the 59th Senior National Hockey Championship for the Rangaswamy Cup at Hyderabad from March 10 to 26. 

Tournament Director Mohammed Ghouse said the teams have been divided into eight pools for the preliminary league. The top team from each pool will progress to the quarter-finals which will be played from March 18 to March 24. The semifinals are slated for March 25 and the final on March 26.

There will be 7 matches daily during the league stage, starting from 6:15 am. The last match of the day will commence at 7:30 pm. There will be a total of 90 league matches. For the first time ever, matches in the National Hockey Championships will be played under floodlights.

The IHF has posted 23 umpires, including all the active international-grade umpires of the country, for the Nationals. As such, there will be 19 outstation umpires and four local umpires supervising the matches.

Organising secretary G Sathyanarayana, who is also the secretary of the Hyderabad Hockey Association, said efforts were on to rope in enough sponsorship to meet the estimated expenditure of Rs. 35 lakh.

The groupings are:

Pool A	Railways, Punjab, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan
Pool B	Gujarat, Hyderabad, Uttar Pradesh, Nagaland, Post and Telegraph, CISF
Pool C	Mumbai, BSF, SAIL, FCI, Vidarbha
Pool D	Indian Airlines, Orissa, Haryana, Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir
Pool G	Karnataka, Central Excise, Chandigarh, Delhi, Madhya Bharat, Tata Sports Club
Pool H	Services, CRPF, Bengal, Kerala, Assam
Pool I	Air India, PSB, Combined Universities, Pondicherry, Madhya Pradesh
Pool J	Tamil Nadu, Patiala, Bhopal, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur

welve institutions are affiliate members of the Indian Hockey Federation. They are Indian Railways, Indian Airlines, Air India, Services, Border Security Force, Central Industrial Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force, Punjab and Sindh Bank, Central Excise, Food Corporation of India, Posts and Telegraph and Tata Sports Club.

Indian Railways have the maximum number of Indian women internationals, while Indian Airlines has the maximum number of Indian men's internationals. Air India, besides having several internationals, runs the National Hockey Academy which regularly churns out quality Indian players.

In addition, various banks provide many players in the domestic hockey tournaments. In particular, Punjab and Sindh National Bank is a member of the IHF, and also sponsore the National Hockey Championship when it was last conducted.

As many as 7 of the 16 players who won the Bangkok Asian Games hockey gold in December last year were from Indian Airlines. And the Airlines showed its gratitude to those 'magnificient seven' by giving them promotions.

Indian Airline's chairman-cum-managing director Anil Baijal handed over letters to goalkeepers Ashish Ballal and A. B. Subbaiah, and ace right-winger Mukesh Kumar promoting them as managers.

Pivot Mohammed Riaz and defender Dilip Tirkey, who stood like a solid wall between the maurading Koreans and the Indian goal, were made deputy manager and assistant manager respectively. Two newcomers to the IA 'family', defender Lazarus Barla and Sameer Dad, moved to the next higher grade.

angalore played host to two institutional hockey events - the 10th All India Inter-Bank hockey tournament, as well as the 14th All India Telecom hockey tournament. 

The inter-bank tournament at the Akithimanahalli Stadium was a 6-team round robin league involving Bank of India, Canara Bank, Central Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Reserve Bank of India and United Bank of India. Asian Games hero Ashish Ballal inaugurated the event which was held from January 31 to February 6, 1999.

The final league positions were:

            P W D L GF GA GD  Pts
Canara bank 5 4 1 0 19  2 +17 13 
IOB         5 3 2 0 18  9 + 9 11
UBI         5 3 0 2  8 10 - 2  9
CBI         5 1 2 2  5  8 - 3  5
BOI         5 1 1 3  8 12 - 4  4
RBI         5 0 0 5  6 23 -17  0

Indian Overseas Bank, Chennai scored a convincing 4-2 win over Canara Bank in the final of the 10th all-India inter-bank hockey tournament. IOB had finished runners-up in the previous two editions. IOB's Vimal Nathan was declared the player of the tournament

The 14th All India Telecom hockey tournament was held at the KSHA stadium from February 8 to 13. Twelve teams from various Telecom circles around the country participated in the tournament, which was played on a league-cum-knockout basis.

Hosts Karnataka posted a big 6-2 win in their semi-final match over Orissa, while Bihar huffed and puffed before pipping an equally scrappy Andhra Pradesh by a solitary goal. In the final of the tournament, O. E. Thimmaiah scored a golden goal, as hosts Karnataka emerged victorious by the odd goal in seven. Andhra Pradesh beat Orissa 2-1 to secure the third place.

Champions Karnataka thus won their fourth All India Telecom title in a row. Karnataka also won the KSHA Trophy for the maximum percentage of penalty corner conversions, while NTR, Delhi won the KOA Trophy for the most disciplined team.

Olympian M. P. Ganesh, Executive Director, SAI (South Zone), inaugurated the Telecom tournament, while M. S. Rajagopal, the 1952 Helsinki Olympics gold medallist, was the chief guest on the final day.

he majority of Pakistan's hockey players are institutional players, just like in India. Of the 29 probables who are undergoing training for next month's Azlan Shah Cup, 21 are from institutions. The following is the breakup:

PIA	Ahmad Alam, Aamir Salim, Ali Raza, Muhammad Usman, Atif Bashir
Railways	Muhammad Qasim, Imran Rasool
Customs	Danish Kaleem
Habib Bank	Sohail Abbas, Tariq Imran, Waseem Ahmad, Mubashshir Mukhtar, Haider Hussain, Ejaz Rasool, Muhammad Khalid
Police	Irfan Yousuf, Muhammad Shahbaz Jr.
NBP	Adnan Maqsood, Muhammad Nadeem, Muhammad Anis
Army	Muhammad Irfan

eams taking part in FIH-sanctioned tournaments, including their qualifying tournaments, can now take 18 players instead of 16 for the tournament. They can make changes to the final 16 from match to match.

The new rule would benefit teams with a large pool of talented and experienced players. It would also benefit teams with experienced players on the injured list. They can bring the injured players along to the tournaments with the hope that the players could recover in time for some matches.

In other FIH news, the Chairman of the FIH Rules Board, Graham Nash of England, will be visiting India during the forthcoming National Hockey Championships. Apart from observing the umpiring in the tournament, Nash will be involved in a seminar for which the IHF would invite leading women umpires also.

or the first time, Africans are playing in the Australian Hockey League. Forward Eric Odingo and goalkeeper Clement Omany, both from Kenya, will play for the Woodvale Hockey Club in Adelaide. They are Kenyan national team players, and played in Malaysia during the Commonwealth Games.

On to Europe. The north London club Reading has Germany's Eiko Rott as captain and coach, fellow German Torben Gottschau and Austrian Grant von Mayer, along with Australia's Max Diamond and Todd Williams. East Grinstead also has its foreigners - South Africa's Jamie Brown and Belgian Ed Cabay.

German Dirk Brinkmann will play for the Dutch club HC Venlo for the rest of the season. Brinkmann has appeared 99 times for the German team.

In Germany's Bundesliga, 2 clubs are looking to hire Malaysian players this season (April - July). Eintracht Frankfrut and Limburg, both Division Two clubs, want either current or former internationals to beef up their sides. Former Malaysian coach Volker Knapp is handling Eintracht Frankfrut while Paul Lissek, the national team consultant, handles Limburg.

"We will provide air tickets, food, accommodation and also remuneration for the players," said Volter Knapp, who is coming down to Kuala Lumpur in March to discuss with players.

"We will be writing to the MHF soon to make a formal request for the players, failing which we will approach India," said Volter Knapp.

few months back we featured the grandson of Dhyan Chand as our Visitor of the Month. In this edition, we feature the grandson of a contemporary of Dhyan Chand in the path-breaking Indian Army Hockey Team that toured New Zealand and Australia. Sudhir Verma writes:

I have played for my school, college, state (Junior) as left full back and left half back. My father, Shri Shiv Kumar Varma is one of the organizers of the Jawaharlal Nehru Hockey Tournament in New Delhi - India's premier domestic hockey tournament.

My grandfather, the late Shri Fakir Chand Verma was a member of first Indian Army Hockey team that toured New Zealand and Australia in 1928. Other members of that team were the legendary Dhayan Chand and Roop Singh.

It is great that you are doing this service to the sport which Indians are forgetting . Good luck to you all. If need any help in the future please let me know.

e are parents, they are our children. Sometimes they get angry with us and leave us. Now that they have come back, we embrace them,'' P. S. Sujalana, committee member of the Bombay Hockey Association (BHA) said in his truce statement on the patch up between BHA and the break-away Hockey Association of Mumbai (HAM).

A terse press statement, signed jointly by BHA and HAM officials, said: "All existing differences have been resolved amicably to the satisfaction of both parties.'' Olympian Iqbaljit Singh Grewal, president of HAM, said, "We took a drastic step two years ago. There was a communication gap between us. At last better sense has prevailed.''

HAM and BHA conducted parallel leagues in 1998, after a 3-year drought of hockey in Mumbai triggered by lack of astro-turf at the Mahindra stadium. The replacement turf has been lying rolled up due to lack of surface glue, which is being indented. No other country except bureaucratic India would see fresh astro-turf bales lying about for 3 years while waiting for surface glue!

Sujalana and Iqbaljit sat together in the BHA office, swapped anecdotes on the hockey scene in Amritsar and Australia, and exulted Maharashtra's historic first women's gold and men's silver at the Imphal National Games today, the first time when both teams entered the final.

Iqbaljit explained he and Olympian Joaquim Carvalho, HAM secretary, took the initiative to approach BHA after they gauged the impact of the BHA-HAM rift on grassroots hockey. "Some school teams were run by the BHA camp, some by HAM. These small boys would be told not to take part in tournaments run by the opposite camp. We realised hockey was suffering.''

Iqbaljit, who has been appointed coach and selector of the Bombay side, spelt out the dynamics of a reunited BHA. "Our main wish was that we (former players and clubs) should run local hockey. The BHA agreed. We intend to set up a senior tournament committee, and a junior selection committee to get players and clubs involved.''

Iqbaljit, however, warned that all this would be useless until the BHA relays the astroturf. ``You cannot run hockey on grass, we have realised that. Once we have a ground, you will see a sea change. School and university hockey will flourish once again in Mumbai.''

tage dramas and films are the favourite pastimes of the Pakistani hockey players, whose life involves moving from one tournament to another, interspersed by training camps, until they fade away or hang their boots.

Indian movies are a huge hit with the Pakistani team, with their favourites being Kajol among the heroines and Shah Rukh Khan among the heroes.

27-year-old captain Dr. Atif Bashir however puts in his vote for Sridevi. Taking a cue from their skipper, others also cast their votes: Asim Naveed (favourite actress Twinkle Khanna), Sohail Abbas (Manisha Koirala), Danish Kaleem (Madhuri Dixit) while Saqlain isn't able to make up his mind between Karishma Kapoor and Aishwarya Rai.

And just how much can they indulge watching movies on the video and television?

"There's no limit....sometimes even three a day!"

Courtesy Sandeep Nakai of the Hindustan Times