Malaysia, Japan and India keep their slates clean

JALANDHAR (TIP): With festivities continuing unabated, the hosts India, Asian Games silver medalists Malaysia and Japan continued their winning spree in the Hero Asian Champions Trophy Hockey Tournament at Olympian Surjit Singh Hockey Stadium in Jalandhar on Thursday.
When the matches resumed after a day’s break, Malaysia, Japan and India picked up from where they left on the opening day to keep their slates clean. Yesterday, the rest day, turned out to be yet another day of feasts, music and entertainment as the Punjab Chief Minister, Bhagwant Singh Mann, played host to all the six participating teams, their accompanying officials, besides officials of Hockey India, Asian Hockey Federation and the International Hockey Federation.
Some former Indian stars, including Olympians and international players were also called in to join the celebrations while many others on the other side of either the Punjab government or the Punjab Hockey Association were either not invited or preferred to stay away from the first ever international hockey event held by the State.
The Chief Ministers’ reception at one of his official residences outside the shared capital of Chandigarh, was an opportunity for all overseas players to interact with members of the local hockey fraternity.
Among the stars of Indian hockey of yesteryears invited to the dinner reception included Rajinder Singh Senior, Col Balbir Singh, Harpreet Singh Mandher, Gurbaj Singh, Gurjant Singh, Baljit Singh Dhillon, Baljit Singh Chandi, track star Manjit Kaur, Simranjit Singh, Rajpal Singh, Gagan Ajit Singh, Jugraj Singh Senior, Balwinder Singh Shammi, R P Singh, Edwards, Gurjit Kaur, and Jagdeep Singh Gill.
Interestingly, several other international stars closely associated with the development of the game, including Pargat Singh, Rajinder Singh Junior, Gurmail Singh, Rajbir Kaur, Charanjit Kumar, Gundip Kumar, Surinder Singh Sodhi, Sukhvir Singh Grewal, Hardeep Grewal, Dronacharya coach Baldev Singh, Mukhbain Singh, Brig Harcharan Singh and others were seen nowhere either during the matches or the festivities associated with the conduct of the tournament.
There was not much to watch on the playfields as the top three teams faced little or no resistance to keep their track records clean.
The response of the crowd too was lukewarm on a day that started with an overcast weather.
Malaysia after its narrow 5-4 win over China on the opening day had to struggle hard to stave off the challenge of the spirited Koreans in their second game. At one stage, the Koreans managed to draw level with a brilliant field goal through Haeseong Song in the 31st minute after Azimuddin Kamaruddin had put them ahead in the 10th minute.
Stung by the equalizer, Malaysians played their hearts out to take the lead again in the 36th minute through Akhi mullah Anaur and then consolidated it further through veteran Faizal Saari in the 50th minute to move to the top of the table, though temporarily, with a maximum of six points from two games.
Japan survived some stiff resistance from the bottom placed Bangladesh in the second match of the day. It was only a second half penalty corner goal by Ralik Fujishima in the 4oth minute that clinched the issue for Japan.
(Prabhjot Singh is a senior Toronto-based, award-winning independentjournalist, who worked with The Tribune, Reuters, and several media groupsin a career spanning nearly five decades. He has written extensively aboutDiaspora, Politics, Business, Aviation, Health, Public and Private Sectors andSports. He can be reached at prabhjot416@gmail.com)