With enough strength and skills our team performed very very bad shape. Too much of politics in team selection which made chanceless for the quality players who have'nt got the opportunity to enter into national team. Nobody is ready to think about our country's fame. everybody is playing to get their individual show and not for the country with team work.
it is really painful and i could not digeste the loss after having holding the match I can understand how the team would be feeling, but dribbling the balls, not passing very fast, cannot able to trap, this should be learnt from the english teams. May be the foreign coach like john wright in cricket will bring definite laurels in future, we should keep faith in the team. But some of the players are miserable, including dhanraj who waits for the opportunity, but cannot create more opportunities as he was doing before. driblling with the ball as if there is a magic show, (dribbling is done by one singh, i dont remeber his name, always takes time to pass it to others even though many of them waiting for the ball). The Aussies never even stop a ball in the D, simply smack the ball as hard as they can. The Hallapa goal could have trapped, it was a sheer luck, he was stopping and then hitting which is simply not acceptable at this time and style of hockey. You smack the ball as it comes to D and as you experience, I am sure how you hit the ball angled when you come to D for scoring. We have future, provided we retain our foreign coach, but failing in this olympics just become very hard to overcome. Now it is impossible to reach semis, same old story.
Also DD should try to bring the matches live which would reach every nook and corner of our country so that the love for this fantastic game increases. People in India should no where and when India is playing, then only there will be interest. There should be traingular tournament organised with the top teams, try to reach good sponsors and definetely with a good marketing plan from a professional, hockey will be back to the top before cricket and the stars will be equal to the cricketers, I hope Mr.Gill would read this email.
What with a ninny PM whose repetoire seems to be consisting of changing nappies for Priyanka's children and so forth. The subtantial silence of media towards the fate of Indian hostages in Iraq, showing the inconstenecy of our media, and even stranger is the silence of our Muslim 'brothers' who protested loudly against the so-called American invasion of Iraq have either gone underground or mute. Look what happened at the hockey match where the umpires kept awarding the penalty corners to New Zealand till they scored a goal that too after the hooter had sounded. If the country is weak the leadership weaker then even the weakest of enemies will surmount over us. Look even Bagladesh is creating havoc in INDIA( courtesy Commies). Come on everybody UNITE THIS IS THE TIME DEARS!
RE:Sham on India!
by Kailash Das on Aug 22, 2004 01:50 AM
Communists are just giving outside support but they having veto power in the government and see for yourself what is the situation of the country. Communists under lable of Maoists are already reducing Nepal to mere ashes. Sooner these communists and their henchmens in the mainstream media thrown out of this country, better for India.
I am taking the liberty to address you by your first name,being a BIG fan of yours, I think I can do so!!
As a die-hard fan of Indian hockey,and you all team members,I too am disappointed with the results at Olympics.
The results have let us down, but you & your boys have surely played your hearts out. The points raised by you are quite true, viz. position changes, umpiring, etc. And our hockey officials have to take a major chunk of the blame too,for reasons known to everyone!
Dhanraj & Co. CHEERS to you all !!!!!!!!!! You are still our hero and our team is the best !! Give a few years more, and I am sure, the results will echo the same !!!!!!!! Players like you, Gagan, Deepak,Prabjhot,Ignnance, Dilip, Adrin,Vikram,Jugraj etc. have to be around ,in whatever capacity,to realize this dream !!!!! AMEEN !!!!!!!!
Why all this strategy s$%#!? If you knew what works for you, you should have influenced the team before. You are one of the most seniors of them all, why did you accept the position changes at the first place? Team management doesn't play hockey on the ground, its you! What can I say? If had played sensibly you guys would not have lost (atleast) the game against Neds. Australia was ... now how can I explain that? Whats left now huh? Save your faces and play what works for the team India. Win your rest of the matches gracefully and with big margins. And don't forget to post pictures of the beautiful Greece in your next column. Afterall thats why this team went there anyways.
Australia match was the tough one but India matched Australia very well. Goalkeeper Adrian, Dilip Tirkey, Viren, the defense was good but the gaps left by the other defenders let us down. The whole tournament is marked by the defensive lapses by Indian players and very poor trapping. Lot of long balls were wasted and opportunites lost due to poor trapping. The umpiring was not up to the mark in this match and Yellow Card for Dhanraj was uncalled for. All in all india lost the match and Athens 2004 hockey score card will read like this only. But India team should keep on working and practicing on their weaknesses because we want to see hockey and India win more and more.
