ndia and Pakistan played an exciting 8 match series, the first such sporting exchange between the two countries in a decade. Pakistan won the Habib Bank Trophy (Pakistan leg) and the Pepsi Friendship Gold Cup (India leg), en route to winning the closely contested series 4-3. 

The Indian squad was led by centre-forward Dhanraj Pillai, with Vasudevan Bhaskaran the Chief Coach, and C. R. Kumar and Ramesh Parameswaran the Assistant Coaches of the Indian team. Pakistan was coached by ex-Olympian Islahuddin Sidiqqui.

Many of the matches were played in front of sellout crowds. All matches were shown live on Doordarshan (http://www.ddindia.net/live.html) and PTV. Check out the detailed match reports of the 1998 Indo-Pak Hockey Series.

ive test series have been played between India and Pakistan so far. Pakistan have won 3 series, India 1, while one series ended in a stalemate. The results are as follows:

Year	Matches	Result
1978	4	Pakistan win 3-1
1981	4	Pakistan win 2-1
1986	7	India win 3-2
1988	4	India - Pakistan in a 2-2 draw
1998	8	Pakistan win 4-3

The win-loss record for India-Pakistan matches, as of March 31, 1998, is as follows:

Number of Matches : 90
Victories for Pakistan : 42
Victories for India : 30
Drawn Matches : 18

India's highest victory margin in an India-Pakistan match was back in 1986 in the picturesque city of Hyderabad. India won a cracker of a contest 6-3. That was on grass at the Lal Bahadur Stadium. People still also remember that match for its sheer intensity, and the calibre and class of players on either side. If it was that magician, Mohammed Shahid, who captured the imagination of the crowd with his artistry, Pakistan had a super centre forward in Hassan Sardar though he was approaching the last phase of his career.

n extremely valuable resource for hockey on the net is FieldHockey.com. They recently had a commentary called 'Hockey - India's National Sport.' Here's their introduction to the commentary.

The golden era where India used to maul its opposition with disdain is long gone. The days of Dhyan Chand, Roop Singh, K. D. Singh Babus, etc. are only a memory - one which many throughout the world would love to see rekindled.

But just hope and delving in the past will not bring back those days - the game has had radical changes as have the other international teams who have advanced by leaps and bounds by countering India's brilliant stickwork with their robust and tactical power play.

Hockey in India is still visualised as an art and not a science where Skill is considered the most important factor. The changing of the mindset of the players, and the introduction of tactics and strategy in their game plan is almost an impossibility. Today, if one is honest and realistic in one's assessment, then India continues to struggle at the highest echelons in the sport that it taught the world.

Why, What happened and Where did they go wrong?

Do read this nicely analyzed commentary, contributed by various hockey well-wishers, and covering topics like

• IHF - Present State of Affairs
• Shuffling of National Coaches
• Remuneration and Contracts
• TV Coverage of Hockey in India

Thanks to FieldHockey.com, which is run by George Brink, a self-confessed hockey weirdo, and the original hockey cyber-nutter, who is described as completely mad by hockey executives, fellow surfers and his wife. He unashamedly loves hockey and mourns the gradual passing of the exquisite skills of the Indian and Pakistani hockey player in favour of the robust tactics of European hockey.

akistan hockey superstar Shahbaaz Ahmed is the highest paid hockey star in the world. Shahbaaz represents the Orange and Black Club (Utrecht) in the Dutch Hockey League, and reportedly has a salary of $100,000 for the season. His brother-in-law and Pakistan skipper Tahir Zaman also plays in the Dutch league.

33 year old Shahbaaz Ahmed has represented Pakistan in 3 Olympics and 3 World Cups. The highlight of his career came in at the 1994 World Cup when Pakistan triumphed in Sydney. Shahbaaz's brilliance and two saves by goalkeeper Mansoor Ahmed gave Pakistan their fourth World Cup title. The Faisalabad native has won a dozen player-of-the-tournament awards, including the player of the tournament at the 1990 World Cup when Pakistan lost to the Netherlands in the final at Lahore.

On the sponsorship front, the Australian men's hockey team unveiled a new, three-year sponsorship deal with the footwear and clothing retailer Colorado. They will replace the team's previous sponsor, Cathay Pacific, which has been a major victim of the Asian economic crisis and indicated several months ago that it would not renew its deal which expires at the end of next month.

Colorado will be seen on the Kookaburras' shirts and have naming rights to events such as the Colorado Cup, a four-nation series between Australia, India, New Zealand and Argentina to be played in Sydney and Melbourne in April.

Finally, EPSON UK announced that it will renew its sponsorship of the South African men's hockey team at least until the 2004 Olympic Games.

fter making it’s mark as a well-produced hockey magazine, 'Inside Hockey', India’s and Asia’s first hockey magazine is all set to hit the stands for it’s second issue.

This glossy hockey bi-monthly would be an Indo-Pak hockey special with articles coming in from Joaquim Carvalho, centre-half for India at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and M. M. Somayya, India’s 1988 Seoul Olympics captain. And then you have double Olympic captain Pargat Singh writing on how hockey should be commericially exploited.

Plus world hockey updates, an interview with Malaysian coach Volker Knaap, hockey tactics by Shiv Jagday and a column by famous Canadian psychologist Saul Miller. The above will be the March-April issue that will hit stands by the first week of March. The third issue that will be on stands by April last week will be the World Cup special – in fact the whole issue will be devoted to the teams, both mens and womens, at the Utrecht World Cup.

The subscription rates are as follows:

ASIA: 1 Year $24 (six issues), 3 Years $68 ( 18 issues), 5 Years $105 (30 issues)
REST OF THE WORLD: 1 Year $34 (six issues), 3 Years $95 (18 issues), 5 Years $155 (30 issues)

All prices are in US dollars. All rates includes mailing-in charges. Readers should enclose Cheque/Demand Draft favouring Pargat’s Stickwork Pvt. Ltd. Please ensure that your address and telephone number (and e-mail address, if any) are clearly mentioned. The cheque can be mailed to:

INSIDE HOCKEY
Pargat’s Stickwork Pvt Ltd,
C/62 (ground floor),
Friends Colony, New Delhi – 110065.
Telephone/Fax: 6927747
email: Sundeep_30@hotmail.com

ising star of the Indian hockey team, Rajeev Mishra, suffered a knee injury back in February during a training camp at Patiala, and had to sit out of the Indo-Pakistan hockey Test series. After a month-long treatment failed to have the desired effect, Rajeev underwent orthroscopy surgery on his left knee.

Mishra was operated for 'lateral meniscus' tear by noted orthopaedic surgeon, Ashok Rajagopal, who conducted the laser surgery on the player. The surgeon declared the operation as `very successful' and felt that Mishra should be fit in about three weeks time and should be able to play competitive hockey in a month.

Three other Indian players were casualties of the Indo-Pak hockey series. Sameer Dad, hero of the Karachi win, missed most of the India leg on account of injuries sustained on his face. Skipper Dhanraj Pillai was found to have a hairline fracture to one of his metapascal bones, because of a whack he took on his right foot when running out to defend a penalty corner in Jalandhar. Finally, centre-half Thirumal Valavan suffered a hairline fracture of the second matacarpal of his left hand during the Hyderabad test. The injuries to Pillai and Valavan require at least a four-week layoff.

his edition's Visitor of the Month features Lloyd Cowie, Assistant Secretary of the Trinidad & Tobago Hockey Federation. Yes, the West Indies play hockey too, and they have a National Hockey Centre at Tacarigua. They have a hockey league called the Caribbean Championship Division. The teams in the league have exotic names like Chinese Sportsmaster, Seven Seas Fatima and Eastern Players United.

ver 100 school boys converged on the SAI complex at Gandhinagar for a fortnight of specialized hockey coaching. The players were selected from West Zone teams at the Sub-Junior Nationals at Tirupathi last January. The boys had represented Mumbai, Maharashtra, Vidarbha, Madhya Pradesh, Madhya Bharat, Bhopal, Gujarat and Goa. Mir Ranjan Negi, along with former internationals Charles Cornelius and Tikken Singh, selected the boys at Tirupati

The Mumbai lads making it to the camp were: Ram Bahadur (Don Bosco), Rohit Charles (St Anne's, Orlem), Gurpreet Singh (Don Bosco), Hanuman Edke (Fr Agnel's), Gavin Aguiar (St Stanislaus) and Alex Joseph (Sacred Heart).

For two weeks, the boys were put through training and competition on an artificial surface. That, Negi informed, was the focal point of the camp. The coaches concentrated on basics during the morning session, while 40-minute practice matches were held in the evenings. The boys worked on hitting, stopping, pushing and flicking while strength and stamina were improved by weight training.

Negi and Clarence Lobo (Tatas) were assisted by National Institute of Sports (NIS)- qualified Lok Bahadur along with seven other coaches. A database set up at the conclusion of the camp will keep the IHF informed for future development plans. A start has been made to nurture the sport at grassroot levels on a national front. Although the country lags behind Europe where a 'catch 'em young' policy is common, the camp at Gandhinagar, according to Negi, will go a long way in strengthening the cause of Indian hockey.

he World Hockey Rules Board (WHRB), an independent body of the International Hockey Federation (FIH), has decided to confirm the experimental no off-side rule and incorporate it into the rules book from July 1 this year at the conclusion of the 9th World Cup.

"However, the WHRB has decided to terminate the role of specialist penalty corner. From July onwards, the Board will disallow substitution of a player during the award of penalty corners and until its completion," said Brig. Manzoor Hussain Atif, chairman of the WHRB. "But a substitution of the goalkeeper during a penalty corner award will be allowed only in case of an injury to the goalkeeper of the defending team," added the FIH Rules Board chief.

Rolling substitutions will otherwise continue to be allowed throughout the course of play. The mandatory experiment requiring the completion of penalty corners at half and full time will be continued for a second year. Also, the requirement that all players have to be five yards away when free hits are taken inside the 25-yard line has been withdrawn.The FIH Congress is slated to meet on May 30 in Utrecht during the World Cup to elect a new general secretary, a treasurer and half the number of councillors.