Indian eye: hockey

After missing the Beijing Games, Indian hockey has a chance to find its place at the global stage
Seeking the Olympic redemption

M.S. Unnikrishnan

In a normal world, unrealistic expectations would not exist. In a normal world, practicality and sentiments would never cross paths. In a normal world… there would be no scope for the abnormal. There would be no scope for a story of a nation that dominated world hockey for decades, and then went into a shell, never to emerge.

As the Indian hockey team, eight-time Olympic champions, and rank outsiders off late, seek redemption at the London Olympics, India will once again wait. A billion people will once again look for magic on the field, the ball sounding the back of the post, and hope that the team that walk onto the field as players, walk off it as champions.

No logic, no reasoning, but this is not the normal world. Welcome to the ‘wonderland’ that Indian hockey has turned into.

It might be unrealistic to expect the team to finish high at London, though legions of fans across the country and from the diaspora expect them to win a medal — which is completely unrealistic.

A year ago, when former Australian international Michael Nobbs replaced Jose Brasa of Spain as the chief national coach, he had inherited a fractured team, beset with dissensions and revolt. Though Brasa had done much to elevate the standard of the game in the short span he was with the team, which included the 2010 World Cup in Delhi, and podium finishes in the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games, player-power had assumed threatening proportions, and the existence of two hockey bodies — Hockey India and the Indian Hockey Federation — only emboldened the players to assert their rights, and wangle more cash and other facilities for themselves.

This vitiated the discipline in the team, and Brasa had to pay with his job for espousing the cause of the players when he locked horns with his employers, Hockey India and the Sports Authority of India.

The launch of the World Series Hockey (WSH), modelled on the pattern of the cash-rich IPL, weaned away many good players from the national team, including former captain Rajpal Singh. Nobbs took charge of the team at a difficult time, and he was not even sure that the bunch of players put in his charge was capable of taking India past the Olympic qualification hurdle.

After a series of camps, he identified the core of the players who would be the backbone for the Olympic qualifiers, and then the Olympics. But the only catch was that some of them were contracted to play for the cash-rich WSH, which Nobbs felt would divide their loyalty, and which in turn would hamper their preparation for the Olympics.

He gave them the choice of playing for themselves, or for the country, and many opted to play for the country, the sensible options.

Hockey India also pitched in, offering them many cash and other incentives. Thus, finally, Nobbs had the team under his full command. From then on, his focus was on shaping them into a battle-fit combination for the tougher campaigns ahead.

Nobbs brought in many changes, including in the playing format, bringing back the attacking ways of the Indian team by exploiting their natural ability to run fast — the hallmark of Indian and Asian hockey.

Being tutored in the Australian way of hockey, Nobbs knows too well that only sustained attacks and a rock-solid defence can stand the test of trials against top-ranked teams. That his strategy worked wonders was evident at the Olympic qualifiers in Delhi in February, when the hosts gave a stand-out performance, which culminated in them giving an 8-1 lashing to France to make the Olympics cut, after sitting out the Beijing Games. The Olympic qualifiers also brought out the best in drag-flicker Sandeep Singh, mid-field marshal Sardar Singh and forward S.V. Sunil and goal-keeper P.R.Sreejesh.

Though Nobbs felt that India could have done well with a lot more exposure matches against top teams, he still managed to get many outings to fine-tune the team for the big battle ahead in London, where his aim would be to make the team play as well as they are capable of.

Though Nobbs has declared that India will not be in London to make up the numbers, he understands that winning a medal will be a tough task. So, for the present, his aim would be to put the team among the top six.

But even that would be a tough call, as India have been clubbed in Pool B comprising Olympic champions Germany, Korea, New Zealand, Belgium and the Netherlands. Nobbs has often said that any team who make up the 12 in the Olympics can beat any other team. But realistically, it would be a great achievement if India grab a top-six position.

India, of course, last won a medal at the boycott-hit Moscow 1980. India came close to making the semifinal cut in Sydney-2000, but hit the nadir when the country failed to qualify for the Olympics for the first time, in 2008.

One worrying factor for Nobbs is that in the recent matches, including the Azlan Shah Cup, where India finished third, the team failed to cash in on scoring chances. The attacks, though penetrative, have not fetched many penalty-corners either. That’s worrying as India’s chances of victory greatly hinge on their two world-class exponents of the drag-flick — Sandeep and V.R.Raghunath.

Nobbs has opted for goalkeeper Bharat Chhetri as the captain on the premise that with two goal-keepers in the team, he will be able to field a custodian who does well in a particular situation.

Will London bring a turn-around for Indian hockey? Wait and watch.