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Last rehearsal, India must get their lines right for Olympics

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->India launch the final phase of their preparation for the Olympics tomorrow when they take on Malaysia at Canberra in the opening match of the four-nation tournament. Australia will be playing South Africa in the other match of the tournament and the same teams will participate in the second leg of the twin-meet at Sydney later this month.

However, for India the tour Down Under comes in a mixed atmosphere. Last year, Indian hockey was on a resurgence after finishing fourth in the Champions Trophy but they have struggled to find their form in two tournaments this year.

The issue which should worry Indian hockey right now is the absence of a quality drag-flicker in the team. The Indian think-tank has not, surprisingly, found a substitute for Jugraj Singh almost a year since he got injured. The IHF did have an option in the promising Sandeep Singh, who had scored heavily in a five-nation junior tournament in Poland in 2003 and also impressed in the Azlan Shah tournament this year in KL.

After India’s insipid performance in the Olympic qualifying tournament in Madrid, it seems there is a dearth of a top-class playmaker in the team also. Without a feeder, the talented forwardline cannot function as seen in the previous tournament. Dhanraj Pillay, who has played successfully in this position, was not even considered for the Australian tour.

The other playmaker Baljit Dhillon was dropped on ‘form’ after the Madrid qualifiers.

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This stinks. Stop playing games with the lineup with only a few months left for the Olympics.
<!--emo&:grenade--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/grenade.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grenade.gif' /><!--endemo--> what are they doing to the team. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->