On a day when the news of Sunita Rani’s second failed dope test came from Busan, the slogan of ‘‘Bharat Mata ki jai’’ may have come as something out of tune. But it was meant to welcome home the Indian tennis stars, sans Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi — the actual heroes — as they arrived tonight from Busan along with the hockey teams. Expectedly, the All-India Tennis Association officials and a motley group of well-wishers and fewer fans were there but conspicuous by their absence was the hockey officialdom.The men’s hockey team members and shuttler Pullela Gopichand were visibly upset — the first for missing the gold and the latter for not finishing among the medal count. And it was no different as for the women hockey team was concerned who, after their wonderful showing at Manchester, finished fourth. In fact, it was the women’s hockey team that came out of the IGIA terminal first but they slipped out smoothly without raising any questions or eyebrows among the bystanders.‘‘Is Leander coming?’’ was the most obvious question from the people present there. But in the absence of the gold medallist duo, Vishal Uppal, who remained the cynosure of all eyes as he led a ‘‘happy’’ team back home. The experience was ‘‘great’’ and they were all happy but ‘‘Mahesh and Leander could have won individual medals as well,’’ felt team coach Enrico Piperno.Gopichand without wasting words simply said, ‘‘He (Shon Seung Mo) played much better.’’Rajinder Singh, the coach of the Indian hockey team, however, was ‘‘very happy’’ with the performance of the team. ‘‘We matched in strength and skill with every team. But, we were just a bit unlucky in the final,’’ he added. His words were echoed by team skiper Dillip Tirkey even as he admitted, ‘‘we played badly in the first half of the final but we came back strongly. We should have won the game but luck was not on our side.’’ Manager Hardip Singh Dhillon, however, alleged that ‘‘the last-minute penalty corner in the final was not called for.’’ But in the end also admitted that India played the best and worst hockey in the same match. ‘‘We played the worst in the first half and did the best in the second half when the chips were down.’’
