Mumbai turns to Kaushik to infuse magic

Mumbai: After managing a solitary victory last season, harried Mumbai Magicians understandably made wholesome changes to their squad for the second. As many as 11 players were replaced and renowned coach Ric Charlesworth was shown the door.

M.K. Kaushik, the senior team’s assistant coach who replaced Charlesworth was given a simple yet firm order, to ‘revive the team’s fortunes’. Kaushik does not have a magic wand but what he surely has is wealth of experience.

The Mumbai Hockey Association Limited Stadium is second home to the veteran coach, whose journey as India’s right-winger and later as a national coach began here. For close to two decades from 1975 to 1989 he represented Tata Sports first as a player and then as a coach.

“Those were the best days of my life. This is the place that helped me shape my career and it is wonderful to return to the same venue. I had a satisfying first innings and I hope to fulfil the expectations as coach in my second innings here,” Kaushik reminisced ahead of his team’s first home tie against Uttar Pradesh Wizards on Wednesday.

Like last year, Mumbai’s campaign started off on a bad note as they went down 3-5 to Punjab Warriors on Sunday. Kaushik termed it a minor blip. “We scored three goals but committed some fouls. Those were not huge mistakes and we will rectify them.”

Seasoned forward Prabhjot Singh, who played a key role in Sher-e-Punjab’s title triumph in the World Series Hockey, believed the team are a well-knit unit. The India forward will miss out on the home match due to the three-month ban that gets over this month following a melee at the Surjit Singh hockey tournament last year.

Glenn Turner, Aus-tralian forward and team captain for Wednesday’s match sounded positive. “Though we lost last year, the matches were really close. We are going to come up with lot of fight this year."