Bracing for a sequence of afternoon fixtures in the 26th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup that starts tomorrow, the Indian team was today welcomed at the stadium by torrential showers that have brought in a new dimension to the hockey event.
The tropical weather is expected to bother Great Britain more than the Indians in tomorrow’s afternoon encounter, but the seasonal monsoon showers that have been coming down with intense force every afternoon has left India coach Roelant Oltmans worried.
“Four of our five matches in the round-robin league are scheduled in the afternoon. I hope the rain does not spoil out games,” said Oltmans about the weather conditions that are a bother for the organisers, who in 2010 had to declare India and South Korea as joint champions due to flooding of the pitch on the day of the final.
More than the daily showers, it’s the accompanying lightening that has become an issue of discussion between the tournament director and the organisers.
When lightening occurs, hockey match being played on synthetic turfs are suspended midway to avert any danger to players and match officials on the pitch.
Both India and Great Britain teams are using the training time to get acclimatised to the hot and humid afternoon weather.
Oltmans said that his team was well acclimatised after arriving a few days ago, but British coach Bobby Crutchley felt his side could have benefited from some more days in the tropical conditions.
“Several of the boys played in our club finals back home last weekend. As a team, we could not have come earlier,” said Crutchley, a former Great Britain player himself who played in Ipoh as a junior international.
“We’ve come from typical English conditions, which are quite different from the hot and humid weather here. But the boys are fit and in good nick. They’ve trained in the afternoon and got to be able to cope with the conditions.”
Great Britain’s joint captains Phil Roper and Ian Sloan emphasised that the team expected these weather conditions.
“We did a bit of heat exposure work back home,” said Roper, while Sloan said the British squad had the physical ability to overcome the weather conditions.
After their poor show in the 2016 Olympic Games, where Great Britain failed to make the quarterfinals, Crutchley is under pressure to produce some good results before London plays hosts to the World League Semifinals in June.
India coach Oltmans said his side needed a last-minute change before departing from its training camp at Bangalore as captain P R Sreejesh’s understudy goalkeeper Suraj Karkera got injured and had to be replaced by Akash Chikte.
India is looking to carry the adrenalin rush of the Junior World Cup through the injection of six members from that team into the squad for the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup.
Oltmans said India’s objectives right now was to rebuild a side with the focus on both the 2018 World Cup and the 2020 Olympics.
“We need to provide the right exposure to our junior player with the focus on building the team for the World Cup next year and Olympic in 2020,” said Oltmans.
“The young boys are enthused. They need to get accustomed to the team’s need of structure.”
Among the three newcomers to the senior India team is Sumit, the most talked about youngster who can easily switch from his midfield position to that of a striker, or fall back to bolster the defence.
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