AZLAN SHAH CUP – A WAKE UP CALL FOR A BUSY YEAR AHEAD / Vijay Anand

Australia again proved that they are undisputed king of the business. They only extended their record of lifting the trophy of Azlan Shah Cup at Ipoh, reaching double figure in style. They never come under pressure in the entire time that they spent on Astroturf, forget about losing. Goal difference in round robin game for them was whopping +12. This should be a wakeup call for India. Including Aussies, they will face tougher opponents in Gold Coast Commonwealth games. Pakistan, South Africa, New zee land will also be in fray, fighting for podium.

Men in Blue played first game against Olympic champion Argentina. Rain marred the proceedings frequently. All goals (3-2) were scored through PCs. Amit Rohidas and Gonzalo Palliat sounded the board, but in the end, latter was the better man. Next game was against England. Team showed little heart. Blue squad threw away lots of chances, including some sitters. Despite flurry of attacks and penalty corners, team ended the game with sharing points. India failed to trouble the kangaroos. Amit Rohidas conceded Green card. From here, inside 5 minutes, Aussies netted 3 times. By 40^th minute, score line was reading 4-0 and for rest of the time, it was a match for respect. Ramandeep pulled 2 goals back but it was too little, too late. Malaysia defeated Argentina 2-1. They came to play against boys in blue with high spirit. For the first time, against noisy packed home fans, India displayed what they are made of. 5-1 was heavy margin for win. Last match was for final. Interestingly, title race took interesting turn. Except Ireland and Australia (already qualified), all other teams were in contention for summit clash. Here, India slipped against weakest opponent 3-2 and from podium, they were condemned to play match to save basement position. It was saved after a win of 4-1 over fancy Ireland and they came 5^th.

It was a mix of new, inexperienced, and heavily experienced players. Sardar was given an opportunity to prove his depleting passing strength. Team took services of Amit Rohidas as drag flick specialist. Rupinder pal Singh, Raghunath, Harmanpret Singh were rested at home. Gurjant, Varun Kumar, Talwinder, were preferred over fast Manpreet Singh, poacher Mandeep Singh and reliable Akashdeep Singh. Both the first two goal keepers were replaced with 3^rd and 4^th choice GKs. Suraj impressed with his impact, avoided soft goal.

The part upon which team has to work is in comeback attitude. Whenever boys come under pressure, they succumb to it and returning from 2-1 or 3-2 in last 15 minutes becomes impossible. The worst part is that it gets exposed in front of weaker opposition. We saw this shortcoming in Landon last year against Malaysia and Canada. Irish team treated us in the same way at Ipoh. Some mental fitness programme can help in overcoming this new bad surrendering habit. Change of coach is the last thing that is required but what is expected is that coach Sjoerd Marijne should give experiments a rest. There were few silver linings and for a medal in busy calendar year, full of important tournaments, this outing should ring some alarm bells.