Aggressive training in Europe, experience of playing without seniors, anti-corruption education and fitness to match the best are some of the sessions which the Indian men's hockey team went through in their target to qualify for the 2014 FIH World Cup.
The entry to the World Cup rests with the FIH Hockey World League (HWL), in which six top finishers from the two eight-team semi-finals will crash in to the most desirable event.
It should be noted that Rotterdam is the venue for the first semi-final episode, where the Indian men's and women's teams will trudge it out to win the tournament. If not, then at least finish among the top three to enter the World Cup.
The men's and women's competition is scheduled at the same time at Rotterdam. Subsequently, the second semi-final event will be held in Malaysia for men and London for women. Actually, the eight teams involved in each of those two events will be divided into two pools of four each. In the ideal scenario, top two teams from both the pools will make itself to the last four. However all eight teams will march to play at the quarter-finals, which makes the pool fixtures ‘practice for the knockouts’. At the end, two finalists and winners of the third-fourth place play-off to qualify for the World Cup.
The 12th ranked Indian men's team had a busy six-month preparation event. The practice began with Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, where a 5th-place finish was a learning experience for the team without seniors VR Raghunath, Sardar Singh and SV Sunil who were rested for the event. They won against archrivals Pakistan which was a consolation following defeats with Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Unfortunately, the home-and-away series against Pakistan was cancelled due to political reasons, but Hockey India League (HIL) made up for it by bringing young Indian talent like Mandeep Singh to the forefront.
In fact, India's race for a World Cup berth commenced with HWL Round 2 at home. Only the winner of the event marched into the Rotterdam semi-finals. India thrashed Bangladesh, Oman, China, Ireland and Fiji to enter the semi-finals.
Unfortunately, Goalkeeper Sreejesh missed the tour due to his marriage but it didn't impede the team from hammering the Dutch national team twice. Frankly, India played five matches against apex Dutch clubs on that tour.
It is speculated that for the men, it will be a goal achieved and for women, a bonus. Currently, skipper Sardar Singh is arguably the best central midfielder in the world, despite losing the 2012 FIH Player of the Year award to Germany's Moritz Fuerste. This charismatic player has the capability to lift the whole team on his day and is leading a team full of talent. He warned his boys against losing possession and allowing the rivals in. He explained that they go there with a very good chance but it depends on how tough they play, how they concentrate. They should be particularly careful about not giving away any easy balls to their rivals.
The 11th-ranked Indians, who are the winners of the 1975 World Cup, are expected to win the commencing match against Ireland who are ranked 15th on 13th June but will be tested by 3rd ranked Netherlands and 6th ranked New Zealand. 2nd ranked Australia, 9th ranked Belgium, 17th ranked France and 7th ranked Spain are included in Pool A. However, the real tournament begins in the knockouts.
On the women’s side, 12th ranked India and 9th ranked Japan were the two teams from HWL Round 2 to advance in to the semi-finals. The Indian women will be up against it at Rotterdam and their coach Neil Hawgood commented that World Cup qualification a bonus. He confirmed that they will be playing teams ranked No. 1, 3, 5, 7. Hence it is going to be really tough. He doesn’t expect anything from the ordinary. To be precise, qualification will be a bonus. He is particularly eager to see if the little things they have worked on have changed or not.
Actually, Ritu Rani will be leading the Indian team that is grouped with 13 ranked Belgium, 5th ranked Germany, 3rd ranked New Zealand in Pool B. 7th ranked China, 9th ranked Japan, 8th ranked Korea and 1st ranked Netherlands constitutes Pool A.
