Jugraj could end India's PC shortcomings

mumbai: in modern hockey, midfield superiority, skills and style amount to nothing unless you convert goals and the easiest route to finding the boards is through penalty corners. one of the major reasons for india's gradual decline as a hockey super power has been the lack of penalty corner expert. every team which has cornered glory in the astroturf era has been spearheaded by an ace penalty corner shooter. holland with or without floris jan bovelander or paul litjens, were an altogether different proposition. same goes with sohail abbas for pakistan or john lombi for argentina. hence, it comes as no surprise that when india wins it's first major tournament at the world level in the astro era- the 2001 junior world cup- it possessed the best penalty corner exponent in the tournament- jugraj singh. the 18-year-old towering full-back has been one of the stars of the indian campaign at hobart, playing an invaluable role to be india's second highest scorer with a tally of seven goals. "he was easily the best penalty corner hitter in the whole tournament. all the teams dreaded him and were wary of conceding penalty corners against us," said coach rajinder singh. "jab bhi match phas jata tha, hamein confidence tha ki penalty corner mein goal nikle ga hi," (whenever things became difficult for us in a match, we were confident that we would get the goal though a penalty corner) added rajinder singh, underlining the contribution of jugraj in the success of the indian campaign. "it's a great feeling to have done something for the country," said the man of the moment after arriving with the team in the early hours of tuesday. reliving the golden moments, jugraj rated his goal against holland to put india 2-0 up, india's first goal against spain and the second goal against argentina as his best strikes of the tournament. the drag-flick is his forte, the power and precision dumbfounding even the best goaltenders in the business. jugraj has grown up, inspired by the feats of pakistani penalty corner great sohail abbas and india's best drag-flick exponent baljit singh dhillon, and dreams of emulating these greats on the international scene for india. "he is ready for international hockey," announced rajinder singh, who believes jugraj has it in him to be a force to reckon with at the top level. "in open play, too, he did a wonderful job with strong tackles. earlier, he was only taking drag-flicks but now he has improved his hitting also. maturity will come with exposure and game sense will improve as he plays more matches," added the coach. the splendid performance at hobart was the fruit of endless hours of practice with an emphasis on allround improvement. asked to describe the atmosphere in the indian camp before the final, jugraj, who scored two goals in the summit clash, said, "the coach and captain's brief was not to be complacent, play an attacking game and never let up the pressure." along with coaches rajinder singh and cedric d'souza, baljit singh- his senior at punjab police- has helped jugraj in perfecting the art of penalty corners. jugraj's initiation into hockey was through his sister, former india women's captain and arjuna award winner rajbeer kaur rai, famous as the golden girl of indian hockey. and he gives all the credit for his success to rajbeer and brother-in-law olympian gurmail singh.