Ninth World Cup – Utrecht, Holland (June 20-July 1, 1998)
The quaint town of Utrecht with its cobbled streets, canals and roundabouts, and about an hour’s drive from Amsterdam, provided a picturesque setting for the ninth World Cup. It was a landmark tournament since the Rules Board had scrapped off-side to facilitate a free-flowing game. Another “first” was that concurrent conduct of men’s and women’s competition at the same venue.
However, from India’s point of view, these were trivial matters as they were a side with “passengers and excess baggage” in terms of players carrying injuries and questionable fitness levels.
Coach Vasudevan Baskaran had problems enough without having to deal with a temperamental Dhanraj Pillay enjoying an iconic status. Thus, the Indians limped their way to the ninth spot after losing to Canada (1-4), Germany (1-4), South Korea (3-4) and the Netherlands (0-5) while chalking up just one win (1-0) against New Zealand in the league.
“For me, it was a nightmare, and I hope and pray that I will never find myself in such a situation again,” Baskaran said with a shudder. “There is little that a coach can do when he is given a team with excess baggage. From the very first match, we were out of the competition.”
To compound India’s miseries, umpiring decisions went against them at critical moments. The only occasion when the Indians looked close to their best was when they hammered Poland 6-2 in the 9-12 classification match before scraping past New Zealand 1-0 on a goal by Mukesh Kumar to take the ninth spot.
It was all too little too late for an Indian team that was talk of the tournament for all the wrong reasons, including Pillay’s infamous outburst against Baskaran at a post-match press conference and in the presence of international media.
“It was extremely embarrassing, but there was nothing that I could do at that time,” lamented Baskaran, who also had to make do without star centre-forward Rajeev Mishra who was selected for the World Cup despite carrying a knee injury that eventually ended the career of a player who was reckoned to be one of the finest strikers in a long time.
The World Cup witnessed the height of Spanish resurgence as they made it to the final only to lose 2-3 to the Netherlands in extra-time. It was a repeat clash of the 1996 Olympic final that the Dutch had won 3-1. The Utrecht success presented the Dutch their third World Cup.
Indian team:
Goalkeepers: Jude Menezes, Jagdish Ponnappa. Full-backs: Dilip Tirkey, Lazarus Barla, Anil Aldrin. Half-backs: Baljit Singh Saini, Mohammed Riaz, Ramandeep Singh, Thirumalavalavan. Forwards: Mukesh Kumar, Sabu Varkey, Dhanraj Pillay (captain), Rajesh Chauhan, Sameer Dad, Rajeev Mishra, Harbhajan Singh. Coach: Vasudevan Baskaran.
How they finished:
1. The Netherlands; 2. Spain; 3. Germany; 4. Australia; 5. Pakistan; 6. England; 7. Korea; 8. Canada; 9. India; 10. New Zealand; 11. Malaysia; 12. Poland.
rounak