Yes, Happy With The Win! But Where Are The Skills Of Subcontinental Hockey?

Any match between India and Pakistan is supposed to be the advertisement of beautiful hockey. It is the reminder to the world that even though the rules have changed, the skills of Hockey have not vanished from the field. Along with the sudden one-touch passing and powerful penalty corners we can see goals from some exhibition of skills and intelligence on the turf.Yesterday’s match has billed up to the expectations of being a tough and entertaining match. A match ending 3-2 and with never a team leading by more than one goal was a treat to the eyes of hockey lovers. But do take a look at the standard of the hockey played! It was simply horrible. It seemed either the players did not have any motivation to play good or skill has vanished from hockey or at least sub continental hockey. Look at this match and think of Australia, Netherlands, Spain or England. Now you know why world cup or Olympic gold medals have not reached somewhere closer.

Let’s take a look at the goals at first. We can leave aside the penalty corner conversions, which were great show of power and technique by our own Sandeep Singh. But the other three? Were they the show of brilliance by attackers or blunder by defenders?Pakistan first goal: Sardara Singh gets a back pass and it hits his leg. He is free and is passed the ball to keep possession and rotate the game, not to concede a free hit to the opponents at a place where he is the last defender. And then when the final ball is passed for deflection, there are two Pakistani players unmarked behind the line of goalkeeper. Goal was in the air for Rehan Butt to pluck.India second goal: A great through ball to Dharamveer Singh and he almost spoiled it taking a poor first touch. But to match his class there is no Pakistani defender anywhere close and somehow he puts it below the surging goalkeeper to the net. A world class through ball and a good finish for sure but the way Dharam received the ball, it still hurts. And again where were the defenders?Pakistan Second Goal: Shakeel Abbasi gets a ball inside the shooting circle and is closely marked by Sandeep Singh. Abbasi turns with the ball towards Sandeep and hits it to the net. What was Sandeep doing? And how the hit from such a distance reached inside the circle without even a single deflection off Indian sticks?

What’s more shocking to look at is in a match that swayed back and front and was so evenly contested, there have been only 4 penalty corners! 3 for India and 1 for Pakistan. And total number of shots on goal? Thirteen! Five for India and eight for Pakistan. What were the attackers doing with the ball inside the circle? They could not find a way to shoot at the goal and neither could they find a leg to hit on to get a penalty corner. When the teams have great penalty corner specialists like Sohail Abbas and Sandeep Singh, being so shy of getting a penalty corner makes no meaning at all.

Apart from these there has been numerous cases of schoolboy blunders throughout the match. And it looked like both the teams were trying to match each other in making mistakes. Bad trappings, poor hits, miss passes and bad man-marking, whatever you say was there to watch.People sit in front of the television to see the national team players play and do something that they can only imagine to do and be amazed. It feels bad to see the players committing such silly mistakes which are taken as crime even in the college games. For the last decade we are watching hockey with a hope that someday we will do something notable and show the modern hockey players that we are not lost in the new rules. But such a performance from the players do not give any hope of any change from the 8-0 loss we suffered the last time we met them. Looking at this match I feel sad not only for Indian hockey but for Pakistan Hockey as well.