SYDNEY, SEPT 21: The struggling Indian men's hockey squad face a daunting test in their sputtering build-up for next year's Olympics when they square up for the second leg of the four-nation tournament starting here tomorrow.India, who lost to all three of their opponents, South Korea, Canada and Australia, and also showed signs of fading away in the final stages of each outing in the first leg held at Canberra, have their task cut out at this hockey venue for next year's Olympics.While Canada have drastically enhanced their reputation in international hockey by annexing the first-leg with two wins - including a 4-0 drubbing of the hosts - and a draw, India have hardly shown the kind of enterprise that fetched them the Bangkok Asian Games gold, the only big win in over a decade for the eight-time Olympic champions.The build-up for the Olympics, after omitting six seniors who were part of the Bangkok victory, has been anything but impressive. The seniors did beat Germany in a test match but lost theseries, followed by an embarrassing test series defeat to lightweights South Africa prior to this trip.Chief coach Vasudevan Baskaran has refused to accept that the Indian team has been a total failure despite the 1-6 loss to Korea, followed by 1-2 and 1-3 defeats to Canada and the Australia respectively.``You can't expect miracles from a match or two and the weather was also bad,'' he said about the Canberra leg and also blamed a harsh `stroke' award to Canada with three minutes left for the defeat that demoralised the players.Baskaran said his plans and use of specific players in certain positions were indeed working. The team did give a decent account against Canada and Australia, but have been guilty of inconsistency.``There are periods at any time of a game that our players commit unforced errors. It does not particularly happen in the last quarter. Such mistakes during short spells during any part of the game has been costing us a lot,'' hockey federation president, KPS Gill told PTI inDelhi commenting on the team's performance in Australia.Gill, who is also the Chief selector, expected the team to do better in Sydney as the weather was much warmer than the Australian capital. ``All are fit and more determined,'' he said.The IHF Chief said he refused to take a pessimistic view of the performances and ruled out any major shake-up in the side when about 30 probables - ``core group'' - are shortlisted soon for the Olympic campaign.``I think there is no reason to despair. We've never done anything great after our fifth place in the 1994 Sydney World Cup. Only juniors have done something and many of them are in this team. Before the Bangkok win, the team did poorly in so many tournaments including the World Cup last year in Utrecht.''
