Hockey: Scotland spots on line in test

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Tickets to Scotland are still at stake for players from both teams as New Zealand and India square off in this afternoon's fourth and final hockey test at Auckland Grammar School.

Coach Kevin Towns must name his team for next month's World Cup qualifying tournament early next week and admits he still has a few selection headaches.

"This series has been really good, but it hasn't made my task any easier," said Towns, who took real satisfaction in seeing his side clinch the four-test series with a hard-fought 2-1 win in Wellington on Thursday night.

"There are still a couple of things we are looking at, but time is running out."

Towns was initially expected to name 16 - of the allowable 18 - players for Edinburgh, but suggested yesterday that might be increased to 17, with one player operating the video-camera.

The Indians, who will play in the same pool as New Zealand in Scotland, are also using their matches here as a guide to a squad for the qualifying tournament.

"We have to make cuts from our squad and that is never easy," Indian coach Cedric D'Souza said.

"We have been together for a month and we have learned a lot. It has given me the chance to sift the men from the boys.

"Ten of our team will go to the junior World Cup in Tasmania, so there has been a double benefit from this tour."

Indian hockey is experiencing a resurgence, having beaten traditional rivals Pakistan recently. They have two or three teams playing somewhere in the world at any one time, with squads presently playing in New Zealand and Russia.

Hockey rates second only to cricket in the sporting popularity stakes in India, but with 14 water-based turfs, they have only about the same number as New Zealand.

India has no sand-based surfaces. Many younger players still play on grass.

D'Souza, aged 45, in his second stint as national coach and charged with taking the team through to the 2004 Athens Olympics, endorses changes such as scrapping the offside rule and the non-substitution rule for penalty corners.

"These changes have helped to speed the game up and made hockey viewer-friendly," said D'Souza, who was on standby for the Indian team but never made it to the 1976 Montreal Olympics, where New Zealand hockey enjoyed its golden hour in upsetting the Australians 1-0 in a memorable final.

"Hockey is a game of change. How well you adapt to those changes is the key," he said.

Brett Leaver, although available after missing the first three games while he remained in Auckland with his wife, who had their first child yesterday, is unlikely to play today, but will still be a contender for the team for Scotland.

North Harbour's Darren Smith joins the 100 club today and will lead the team into the match, which starts at 3.30 pm.

* The tourists will play an extra game, against a NZ Indian side, including members of the national team, at Rosedale Park, Albany, at 1 pm tomorrow.