India win Azlan Shah Title

India finally won a Hockey Title as they beat Malaysia 3-1 in the 18th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh on Sunday.  Arjun Halappa (8th minute), Prabhjot Singh (20th) and Shivender Singh (41st) scored for India while Misron (11th) scored for Malaysians.

This title has come after 13 years.  Last year in April finally.. KPS Gill was sacked as the head of Indian Hockey Federation.  His stay at the helm also coincided with the drought of titles for India.  He was the IHF President for 15 years.  Strange?

Anyways, finally the devil is out of this game – back to his den.  And our boys are finally free to play matches.. and not “games” of the other kind with the bureaucrats!

The coach of this Indian team was an Indian Harendra Singh.  He took over from Ric Charlesworth – arguably one of the top hockey players of this era!  So, the argument of foreign vs Indian players as coaches is useless.  Even Indian coaches can do wonders.

One more point – both against Pakistan and Malaysia, one thing stood out… Indian team’s DEFENSE!  Though the score which became the final tally was scored well in to the second half, but the opposing team had enough time to equalize.  This is something that Indian team has always messed up in.  Every time the opposition would put pressure.. the Indian defense would crumble.. and we would lose a match that we had already won.  But not this time.  Even when we had just a one goal lead against Pakistan.

So, really well done!