WORLD OF HOPE

As Junior Hockey World Cup gets underway, India look to spot the next crop of players who can make the senior cut ahead of big-ticket events

- SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN

WHEN Mandeep Mor led India’s junior side in the final of the Sultan of Johor Cup in October 2019, the squad was one with promise. After 766 days and a lost generation, the junior side will play their first competitive game in over two years when Vivek Sagar Prasad leads them onto the field against France in the Junior Hockey World Cup on Wednesday.

Thanks to the pandemic, the junior team’s programme has been barbecued. In a normal year, they play at least two or three international events. In the last two years though, their only action has been practice matches against the seniors inside the Sports Authority of India campus in Bengaluru. It’s important to place on record that most other teams’ junior programmes too suffered as a result of the pandemic. In fact, the South Africa junior squad, like India, played in multiple practice matches against the senior setup.

Even amidst all that churn and uncertainty, the management has been able to name a similar-looking squad to the one that played in Malaysia in 2019. Eleven of the 18 that played there will be in action in Bhubaneswar. Nobody needs an introduction to captain Vivek Sagar Prasad, he was in the senior squad that medalled at Tokyo.