Blue turf poses problem for India

The great benefit of blue is that it makes a nice sharp contrast with the yellow ball and the pink sidelines for the benefit of both players and spectators, live and armchair alike.
Blue turf poses problem for India

The great benefit of blue is that it makes a nice sharp contrast with the yellow ball and the pink sidelines for the benefit of both players and spectators, live and armchair alike. But if a need for an extra bit of brand definition played a part in the decision to switch from traditional green, the hockey authorities can hardly be blamed. Their sport, after all, has to fight for attention along with all the other smaller sports. After that, it has to make the most of whatever exposure it gets.  

But the inception of the bl­ue turf at the Riverbank Arena — hockey venue at the Olympic Games — hasn’t gone well wi­th many sides, more so with the sub-continental teams. Bo­th Pakistan and India, the la­tter more so, have traditionally struggled to get accustomed to varying su­­r­faces. India lost their first four matches in the first exposure to the blue turf, in a pre-Olympic test event in London. They wheedled out bronze in the Sultan Azlan Shah, but their overall performance was disappointing.

The Polytan synthetic turf, some reckon, plies onto one side. The surface has a slight tilt, which makes it easier for the ball to move in one direction but slightly rougher when mo­ved in the opposite direction. It can, at times, be excessively slippery. And according to Australian coach Ric Charlesworth, “Someti­m­es you can get away with luck.”

However, having played 10 matches on such surfaces, apart from training in India’s only blue-turf at the Punjab Agricultural University turf in Ludhiana, Indians have had de­cent exposure. 

“Most teams have not played on this sort of pitch. The change is for everyone, so it is difficult to say whether it will be a big disadvantage for India. That shouldn’t be a mental block or an excuse for not performing to the par,” remarked former skipper Ajitpal Singh.

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The New Indian Express
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