For Adolf Colaco, Errol D'Silva and Suresh Pereira, making it to the India hockey probables list has been a small victory. The three men from Bandra may be realistic about their future chances; but they will celebrate their victory by boarding a train for Patiala tonight, to attend the camp.

Their selection to the list of 73 probables, a talent pool from which the squad for the 2000 Sydney Olympics is to be selected, is also a victory for the schools that groomed them.

Adolf and Suresh were students of St Stanislaus while Errol trained at the neighbouring St Andrew's. Both schools have been long-time cradles of hockey in Mumbai.

Adolf, the most articulate of the trio, says, ``The stress Stanislaus lays on hockey is tremendous. We had Olympians like Marcellus Gomes andJoaquim Carvalho coaching us. Hockey was almost a cult for us.'' No wonder, St Stanislaus continue to reign school hockey to this day.

All three, who stay within five minutes of each other, played for St Andrew's College, progressed to Bombay Republicans, before joining Mumbai Customs. They made the all-India Customs & Excise team for the Nationals at Hyderabad last month, and stunned everyone with a creditable 2-0 win over fancied Punjab & Sind Bank -- featuring internationals Baljit Singh Saini, Baljit Singh Chandi and the promising Parminder Singh -- in the quarter-final. They finally bowed out 0-1 to Tamil Nadu in the semi-final; but not before Errol and Adolf caught the selectors' eye.

``We were really riding our luck there,'' said Adolf, self-deprecatingly, with a laugh. ``We did not have the arsenal to play open hockey. But our defensive strategy worked.''

While it was 26-year-old Errol's first Nationals and his first summons as a probable, Adolf and Suresh have been there before. Adolf, 27, wasin the 1992 Junior World Cup (Kuala Lumpur) squad. After that came a stint in the wilderness, but the import clearance officer at Nava Sheva Port has willed himself to come back.

He is, however, pessimistic about his chances. ``I don't see them making too many changes in the current team. They should be forming a second developmental team, but for that, they will be looking for youngsters, not someone of my age.''

Suresh, 23, has already been to two camps last year -- for the Commonwealth Games, and for the Cairo tour recently. He was not selected. He has age on his side, and is talked off as a promising prospect. There are two tours, to South Africa and Germany, coming up. If Suresh lacks anything, it is experience -- he is yet to play a Super League or Senior League match, as the BHA league has not been conducted for the past three years. The absence of the league is the sad twist in their story, as Adolf and Errol also feel they have lost their best years in the interim.