Victorious jr hockey team felicitated

India's comprehensive victory in the inaugural Junior Asia Cup (under-18) hockey championship once again proved that with proper training and exposure matches, the country can regain its top position at the world level.

With the victory in the eight-nation tournament, which concluded in Ipoh, Malaysia, on Suday, India are now Asian champions in the under-16 and under-18 categories and also at the school level. Experts and officials have already set their sights on the coming under-21 World Cup.

"We have probably the best back-up programme in the world," Indian Hockey Federation chief K P S Gill claimed on Monday, at a function to felicitate the victorious under-18 team.

The Indians totally dominated the tournament pumping in as many as 54 goals in six matches with captain Jugraj Singh top-scoring with 14 goals. India also walked away with a majority of individual awards, with Rajpal Singh being declared the player of the tournament and Tushar Khandekar the best player of the final.

Coach Rajinder Singh was naturally ecstatic with the team's performance. "The boys played really well. They deserved to win," he said.

While he insisted that the victory was the result of team effort, he did pick up a few players for special mention.

"Jugraj is a very good prospect. He has attended senior camps too and is a very effective full-back. Amarjeet Singh has improved very well and he too is one of the players for the future," he said.

Amarjeet, whose father was killed in anti-militancy operations in Punjab, is one of the only two players who were part of the team that won the under-16 tournament at Singapore last year, Tushar being the other.

Rajinder Singh is not too worried about the fact that most of the good players at the junior level do not stay long enough to make a mark at the senior level.

"One of the reasons is that junior players get jobs early and then they quit the game. But there are many players who keep coming," he said.

Some of the players wear out by the time they reach the senior level and Gill said the selections are done strictly on the basis of current performance.

"However, there are a number of lateral entries and we have no dearth of talent," he said.

From this team, Rajpal, Jugraj and goalkeeper Suraj Kant were picked for the Asia XI, making India the only team to contribute three players, Gill said.

Rajinder said he expects at least 7-8 players from this team to be included in the Under-21 team for the World Cup.