Senior Indian defenders’ game needs some fine-tuning, says Fergus Kavanagh

With an aim of first making it to the Tokyo Olympics through the upcoming FIH Olympic Qualifiers and then performing their level best at the Games next year, the Hockey India has started specialized camps for different aspects of the game. After the strikers’ camp under former Kookaburra forward Kieran Govers and goalkeepers’ camp by Dutchman Dennis van de Pol, two-time World Cup winner Fergus Kavanagh is in Bengaluru for a national Camp for the Indian defenders.

34-year-old Kavanagh has played with and against most of the players in the camp in the Hockey Indian League and he is of the opinion that the training for the senior players and the youngsters will be different during the special camp.

"It depends. Some of the senior players who have been around for a long time, their game needs some fine-tuning, polishing or adding a couple of X-factors to their game. On the other hand, for the younger players we are working on their technique to build a solid base," Kavanagh told TOI.

Kavanagh is considered as one of the finest tacklers during his generation of international hockey. He is currently trying to focus on the same during the ongoing camp in India. He also said that the Indian players have a lot of potential and they possessed good skill and hand-eye coordination. 

"What I see in these players is a lot of potential because of their skill and hand-eye coordination. Players who have been around in the sport are good in tackling but the youngsters are a little raw, so we want to help them build consistency in areas like target-tackling, marking in the midfield and deep defence and intercepting," the former Australian international explained.