Indian coach D'souza taking it easy

05/12/2001

INDIAN coach Cedric D'souza said yesterday the Champions Challenge is
going to be a `damned good tournament' for his side because they no longer
fear going in as favourites in a tournament.
"We made that mistake in the World Cup Qualifier in Edinburgh and in the
end had to fight tooth-and-nail to reach the 2002 World Cup in Kuala
Lumour.
"Now, we take one match at a time and enjoy ourselves, because that way,
the results will eventually come," said Cedric after a training session at
the Kuala Lumpur Hockey Stadium yesterday.
India arrived yesterday morning and in the evening were busy working on
their penalty corner set-pieces.
"In Edinburgh we made some stupid mistakes because there was tremendous
pressure on us to qualify for the World Cup. Everyone back home expected
us to breeze through but when we lost to Argentina (4-5) the world almost
crumbled on the players."
Argentine penalty corner specialist Jorge Lombi demolished India in the
qualifiers but Cedric has been plannning for the past three months on how
to stop the Argentine.
"We have learned from our mistakes and our analysis of the Qualifiers
showed that we gave Lombi too much space to move whenever there was a
penalty corner. At the Champions Challenge, we will definately not make
the same mistake again.
"Overall, Argentina are a very good side but Lombi is their biggest
asset and any team which can stop him effectively, will have a good change
of beating them," said Cedric.
Baljit Singh will again wear the skipper's armband and among the old
guards, they have Dhanraj Pillay to bank on.
"Dhanraj has been training very hard for the past three months and he
has never missed a single training session. We selected him based on
fitness and his undying commitment."
India will be fielding 10 players from the team which emerged champions
in the Junior World Cup in Hobart.
"It is a good investment to field youngsters in a big tournament like
the Champions Challenge because that is the only way for them to gain
experience. If we always keep on relaying on the old hands and not expose
the juniors, it will be bad for the future of hockey in India," said
Cedric.
The 18 players for the Challenge are on a double mission, because not
only are they looking for a promotion to the Champions Trophy which they
last qualified on merit in 1995 in Berlin, but a spot in the 2002 World
Cup beckons those who do well here.
"They will all be on trial during the Challenge because we have a system
where we have three players waiting to fill in one position at any one
time and only those who consistently play well will be fielded for the
World Cup."
(END)