Sports
Dhoni's men can get inspired by Paes
By
By Veturi Srivatsa Late last week, three things kept Indian sport in focus. The cricket
team failed to make the tri-series final to end a dreadful tour of
Australia, a Dutchman has been named the new national hockey coach and
Leander Paes partnered another Martina (Hingis) to win his seventh Grand
Slam title in mixed doubles to add to his eight in the men's doubles.
If
nothing appears beyond Paes even at 41, nothing seems to be going right
for the cricket team with the World Cup less than two weeks away. The
appointment of Paul van Ass, 54, as chief coach of the hockey team is a
bolt from the blue with no media leaks or speculation ahead of the
appointment.
Paes is so exciting to watch on a tennis court
giving expression to his passion for the game. He has yet again proved
that he can win a major with any partner, Hingis this time in Melbourne.
Exactly ten years ago he had played with the other Martina, the
legendary Navratilova, who even waited for him to return to court after a
life-threatening parasitic infection.
Paes played with South
African Raven Klassen at the Australian Open, his 99th partner in the
men's doubles, and Hingis was the 23rd in the mixed - an amazing record
for a doubles specialist, who has been around for over a quarter of a
century, playing over 40 weeks each year.
The beauty is in the
tennis philosophy of Paes and Hingis. He was confident that he could do
well with her where as the Hingis thought he would be better off playing
with another circuit regular. Maybe, that made both of them to put in
that extra bit of effort as there was little doubt about their
exceptional skills.
How true is the strengths and weaknesses
theory Paes has spoken of. Only two great exponents could plan it out so
well to win without losing a set. That itself a remarkable thing in
modern day doubles.
The Indian cricket team can get inspired by
Paes's zeal and determination. They need not worry too much about some
people writing their chances of defending the World Cup off after their
disastrous tour Down Under. Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his players know
that World Cup is a totally different format and they can bounce back
with the rub of the green going their way.
Though the Indians
would have liked a better preparation for the big event, they should be
confident enough taking heart from their status as the No.2 team in the
rankings of the One-Day Internationals.
They have a problem with
the top order batting and may not be sure of their bowling composition
what with the injuries to some of their key bowlers.
In fact,
their in-form opener Rohit Sharma did not play the last three games
nursing a hamstring. Likewise pacer Ishant Sharma did not bowl flat out
even in the nets but stayed with the team for over a month. Now it is
being said he may not be fit for the tournament itself.
Ravindra
Jadeja is another bowler who is an iffy, though he bowled 9.5 overs when
the day's best bowler Stuart Binny bowled only eight. Obviously Dhoni
was putting Jadeja through the ringer to test his fitness than worry
about winning the match which they could have with a little imagination.
Let the team settle their fitness problems before discussing their chances of making the semi-finals.
Coming
to the hockey development, none of the coaches in recent years left
with any goodwill, some of them have literally been hounded out. At
least two of them, Ric Charlesworth and Terry Walsh came with huge
reputations, but the authorities just could not find a way to keep them.
The
one man who seemed to have learnt the ropes to stay put is High
Performance Director Roelant Oltmans, who also doubled up as coach at
the Champions Trophy in Bhubaneshwar when Hockey India (HI) decided to
sack Walsh.
Oltmans' hand can clearly be seen in the appointment
of compatriot Van Ass, who was in-charge of the Netherlands team for
four years before being relieved at the end of his four-year term last
year. Another Dutch Hans Streeder and Australian Alexander Grey were the
other two to be short-listed along with Van Ass.
Walsh, who
guided the team to win the Asian Games gold to make India the first team
to directly qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics as continental champions,
fell foul with HI strongman Narinder Batra by playing his cards wrong.
By
all accounts, Van Ass is a no-nonsense coach and expects his players to
fall in line. In his first interaction with an Indian journalist he
said he believed in evolution and not revolution, whatever that may
mean.
He should be happy to take over a team that beat Belgium
and his native Dutch in the Champions Trophy to finish fourth in a
tournament which was played among the eight best teams in the world,
less than two months ago.
It is to be seen how long the two new coaches can put up with the HI bosses who may not like the stated approach of Van Ass.
(Veturi Srivatsa is a senior journalist. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at [email protected])