Stick to core group of players for at least 7 years: Somaya to IHF

New Delhi, Aug 10 (UNI) Former India captain and Olympic gold winner M M Somaya has advised the national hockey establishment to stick to a core group of players for a 'good length of time' to see results coming in the international competitions.

''Stick to a group of tried and tested group of players, say for seven or eight years and I think results will come in. India has the talent to be among top teams in the world,'' Somaya, who was recently appointed technical director of the national squad, told UNI at the sidelines of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board's (PSPB) award function last night.

''This applies to head coach and his staff also. They should be given some years to know the players, study them and implement his and his staff's scheme of things,'' added Somaya, who was honoured PSPB's Lifetime Achievement Award.

Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) in recent few years chopped and picked several players on one pretext or the other even as performance nosedived, with India finishing 11th among 12 countries in the 2006 World Cup in Germany and failing to reach semi-finals for the first time in Asian Games history in Doha in December last year.

Somaya refused to answer any question regarding the functioning of IHF and rather gave approval on the national federation's recent moves to appoint separate goalkeeping and penalty corner coaches.

''It was a good move by IHF. Penalty corner conversions and goalkeeping are two important areas which we need to improve,'' said the centre-half who was in the 1980 Moscow Olympics gold-winning team, India's last triumph at the highest international level.

Somaya also rued the lack of a pool of penalty corner specialists and the problems it was creating for some time now.

''We had Jugraj Singh whose career was short-lived by an unfortunate accident. Then Sandeep Singh was injured in a freak incident and now inexperienced V Raghunath has been called up for the Asia Cup in Chennai,'' rued the India captain of the 1980s including at 1988 Seoul Olympics..

Recollecting his playing days, he said the game had changed so much from the 1970s and 80s in terms of new rules and pace of the game.

''The offside rule, the obstruction rule, the rolling substitution, everything has changed. Then the game has become so fast now. We have to adapt quickly to these changes to become a top hockey playing nation,'' added Somaya, who has also served as manager of Indian team in late 1990s.

UNI