Miracle at Dhyan Chand stadium: can it continue?

Before the 2010 Hockey World Cup began in New Delhi yesterday, I was inclined to write a blog titled, "Elegy to Indian hockey". News of astonishing practice victories over Argentina and (hold your breath!) Holland gave me pause, and I considered writing one titled "Elegy or Resurgence?" Eventually, I chose to hold back and simply watch the outcome of the first game that would determine whether or not India would have any chance at all in this World Cup. And, oh! what a splendid surprise Team India sprung in that late-night match at the Dhyan Chand Stadium. Not just beating Pakistan 4-1, but doing so with deftness and team-work that has been entirely absent from Indian hockey for the past 35 years.

For the long-suffering fan of Indian hockey, it had been a long litany of woes since that awful day in 1976 when the reigning world champions went down to ignominious defeat (1-6) to Australia at the Montreal Olympics. The image of Ajit Singh (the stalwart full-back ally of the heroic Surjit Singh during that glorious run in Kuala Lumpur a year earlier) flubbing two simple goal-scoring opportunities in front of the Aussie goal are seared into the Indian hockey fan's indelible memories. We would prefer to block that out with memories of KL and Shah Alam, of Aslam Sher Khan and Surjit Singh, of Ajitpal Singh's and Ashok Kumar's wizardry and of Govinda's heroics in the early-1970s (not just in the Malaysia World Cup, but also the runner-up finish in Amsterdam 1973). But the memories of subsequent inexorable decline crowd out those distant, happy thoughts.

An entire generation of Indians has been born with no actual memories of India as a genuine hockey power. The Moscow Olympic gold medal barely stemmed the rot: it was a depleted competition, although we did still beat Spain in the final. In those days, though, the real powers were Germany, Australia, Pakistan and Holland, and they were all missing at Moscow 1980.

The 1982 Asiad final, when India slumped to a 1-6 defeat to Pakistan, became emblematic of India's demise as a hockey power. Ironically, a month later, the same team that had collapsed in a heap against our north-western neighbour, did get to the final of a world-class tournament in Perth. But that was the last dying ember of Indian hockey's funeral pyre. Occasional brilliance by Pargat Singh's men, the sheer magnificence of Mohammed Shahid's or Dhanraj Pillay's stick-work -- but never again even a podium finish (or a place in the semi-final) of a World Cup or Olympics. That has been the fate of Indian hockey since 1980.

Since the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea suddenly soared into view as the other Asian hockey power (apart from ever-present Pakistan). Spain, England, even occasionally Argentina, beat Team India almost as a matter of course. The tide was occasionally stemmed at least in Asian competition: with Dhanraj Pillay at his pomp, India won the Asiad gold in 1998, and repeated that at the Asia Cup in 2003 (subsequently also winning gold at the Afro-Asian games that year in Hyderabad). Each time, Dhanraj was immediately "disciplined" (and dropped from the national side) for insubordination (as if the players are merely slaves on the plantation with no right to express themselves in opposition to the masters of the IHF administration). In 1998, goalie Ballal too suffered the same fate. Such overt politicisation quickly nipped in the bud any hope of India converting Asian ascendancy to world competitiveness. And, of course, the Indian hockey team froze like a deer in the headlights whenever playing Pakistan -- any time, anywhere (or so it seemed, despite the occasional shock victory).

Then the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), headed for the previous decade and a half by former super-cop KPS Gill, imploded a couple of years ago. An ad hoc committee (comprising former hockey heroes like Ajitpal Singh, Aslam Sher Khan and Dhanraj Pillay) have been attempting to run Indian hockey since. They have held their noses (and fended off the constant sniping of "former Olympians") and somehow allowed a foreign coach, Jose Brasa of Spain, to operate as chief coach of Team India.

And what a miracle Brasa has wrought! In their first match of the 2010 World Cup, at a stadium named after an Indian hockey wizard who mesmerized the world in the 1920s and '30s, Team India concentrated on short passes to their team-mates (rather than their opponents' sticks) and proper trapping, well-planned swarming moves, effective man-to-man marking, superb defense, thorough control of the mid-field and relentless attack (especially in the first half) to sweep to an unassailable 4-0 lead by the 56th minute (before Pakistan got a consolation goal two minutes later). Not even in Dhanraj's day did we ever have an Indian team play like this: intelligent, modern hockey suited to the needs of fast astro-turf (with individual brilliance with the shortened hockey-stick kept to a strict minimum).

We still have a tough road ahead. When you are ranked near the bottom among the participating teams, you get to play the toughest teams at the beginning of the competition. The next two matches against Australia and Spain will test the resilience and mental strength of Team India. A lack of match-practice against the very best teams (because of our failure to qualify for the Champions Trophy annual competition amongst them, and even for the last Olympics) will be a handicap. But then, India is a mystery wrapped inside an enigma for all the other teams too, and coach Brasa has kept it that way by keeping reporters away from the practice sessions for a month before the big event.

Hopefully, Team India will remember that well begun is almost half done. One hopes that they will be inspired by the vociferous crowds to keep performing at the level they displayed on February 28th. If they do, a podium finish is very probable -- and, with a bit of luck, even the World Cup itself may not be out of the question. But even if they do succumb to the relentless pressure, the lesson of February 28th 2010 should be there for all Indian hockey fans to absorb and remember: all that Indian hockey needs is an intelligent, modern coach. The talent is not yet dead, the organization/planning is what is missing. If the administrators will only stay away, and let Brasa get on with it, Indian hockey's resurgence will soon restore most of its lost lustre -- if not all of the glory that existed until 1964. Give Brasa a chance!

Irfan: why do we overlook this match-winner?

In their infinite wisdom, India's cricket selectors now assert that Irfan Pathan is not even among the top 30 ODI cricketers in India. Yet Irfan was Man of the Match in the final of the first T20I world championship (Sept 2007), and earned the same honour in one of India's most famous test victories -- at the WACA in Perth, traditional haven of fast bowlers and graveyard of visiting batsmen, sweeping India to victory with bat and ball in January 2008 and avenging the unjust loss in Sydney (where umpire Benson and Australian cheating had denied India victory). Yet, Irfan has played merely two tests for India since that spectacular performance; in one (against Australia) he shone with the ball (taking three wickets in the only innings) and in the other he top-scored in the first innings (21*) and was unbeaten in the next (43*), but was dropped -- and has never been picked again -- presumably for a rare bowling failure (0/85).

The selectors simply refuse to see Irfan as an allrounder, and drop him as soon as his bowling falters a bit. In this year's T20I world championship (or indeed in the IPL earlier), his bowling didn't even falter but he has been dropped forthwith yet again. Perhaps the most shocking decision of all was to drop Irfan after he scored a test century against Pakistan; he didn't play the first two tests in the next series (in Australia), came in for the third test (at the WACA) and was MoM for his five wickets plus important innings of 28 and 46. But he has only played two tests for India since. The simple fact is that Irfan Pathan is now a genuine all-rounder, a classic utility cricketer in the Shastri mould -- only better. Shastri had a career ODI strike-rate of 61.1 -- almost catastrophic. He had a test bowling average of 40.96 and a batting average of just over 35. In other words, he was a marginally better test batsman than Irfan has been until this point (with a test average of 31.6), although Irfan is certainly a more useful batsman in ODIs already than Shastri was through his career (notwithstanding the brilliance of 1985). Irfan's test and ODI batting averages are much lower than Shastri's, partly because Irfan was initially a genuine tail-ender and has only gradually been discovered as a batsman -- but as he showed in the IPL, he is a fine batsman now. His ODI strike-rate of near-78 also bears out his growing usefulness as a batsman. As a bowler, Irfan is far superior to Shastri, with a test bowling average of 32+ (8 runs/wicket less than Shastri), and and ODI bowling average of 29+ (no comparison with Shastri, whose ODI wickets cost 7 more runs on average for each wicket). Yet Shastri was an automatic selection for the India squad throughout his career, and was rarely out of the test or ODI XI, while Irfan is dropped without the slightest hesitation at the first sign of fragility in either his batting or bowling.

While Irfan's career test bowling average of 32.26 (for 100 test wickets in 29 tests) is just short of enough to earn a permanent place in the side as a pure bowler, it is certainly better than any other contemporary Indian pacer (including Zaheer Khan). And, what the selectors often forget is that Irfan is not merely a fine, consistent medium-pace bowler but also a superb, steadily-improving test batsman. Irfan has averaged 49.66 as a batsman in his last 5 test matches: can any batsman be dropped from any test side for such a record? In his last 12 test matches, Irfan has made 756 runs in 18 completed innings, for a batting average of 42. That is 7 runs per innings better than Shastri's career batting average, approximately the same as Ganguly's career average and a lot better than Yuvraj's. Irfan should be an automatic selection for the Indian test side as a batting all-rounder. His batting average of 42 in his last 12 tests should earn him a permanent slot as #6 in the test batting order -- and his bowling will add variety and depth. With a career test bowling average better than all his contemporaries, it is positively bizarre that Irfan Pathan isn't a permanent member of the test side.