HAS INDIAN HOCKEY REACHED A POINT OF NO RETURN? A FEW POINTERS

Lack of quality players in talent tourney stuns scouts

Satya Siddharth Rath I TNN

Mumbai: Edgar Mascarenhas Sr is sad. A tad disillusioned even. The former international, who played in the 1990 Lahore World Cup, can’t fathom what’s gone wrong with the game in the country. “Where has all the talent gone? The standard is going down each year,’’ he wonders aloud.

Mascarenhas, along with BS Kuttappa, was the talent scout at the U-19 Inter-academy hockey tournament, which concluded at the Mahindra Stadium here on Friday. His job was to pick 66 promising talents (six for each position) from the 23 participating teams for the upcoming national camp. The event, the first of its kind in the country, was part of the IOA backed ad hoc committee’s efforts to spot and groom India’s future stars.

But Mascarenhas doesn’t think there is much hope. “We could pick only 55 boys. That’s the max we could chose. We couldn’t find six decent drag-flickers, just one, and even he’s just about okay. And mind you, we were not looking for exceptional talents, just the ones who have the minimum standard. If this is the kind of talent the academies are nursing, we have a long way to go to meet world standards,’’ the ace forward said.

He explains the ills further: “See, there’s no point blaming the boys. They are playing as their coaches have taught them. The problem lies elsewhere. We are still playing the old style, whereas other countries have made rapid strides forward. We are at least 10 years behind when compared to countries like Australia, Holland or New Zealand. The fault lies with the coaches. They have to keep abreast with the modern style. Unless that happens, I don’t think we can make much progress.’’

Foreign coaches might help, perhaps? “What’s the harm in hiring foreign coaches? But more than that, I think we need to develop our own coaches’ skills. Maybe they could be sent for training abroad to familiarise themselves about the game’s latest techniques,’’ he says.

However, there are other views to India’s declining standard too. Narendra Saini, a SAI coach who currently looks after the hockey academy of Punjab National Bank, feels it’s not just about old or new style. “Not many want to play the game these days. There are hardly many jobs for a hockey player today. Many organisations have disbanded their hockey teams. There’s no incentive for the boys, because they know they can’t make a living out of playing hockey ,’’ says Saini, whose team went down 3-4 to SAI Lucknow in the final.

Another big, and continuing, problem is the overage issue. For an under-19 event, there were many players who looked way beyond the prescribed age limit. “This has been an age-old problem in India. All of them have valid date of birth certificates, so even though you know you are being taken for a ride, you are helpless. Stringent medical checks can catch the cheats, but it takes a lot of time and money. When they should be playing senior tournaments, they are playing the junior age-group ones. The IOA should take a strong note of this,’’ says Mascarenhas.

Former India goalkeeper Mir Ranjan Negi, of Chak De fame, feels unless things change at the grassroot level, nothing will change. “How many schools in Mumbai play hock ey regularly? Hardly three or four. Unless kids play the game at the school level, hockey will continue to languish. I still feel we can be among the top in the world, but it needs a sustained effort over a period of time, and needs the involvement of everyone. There’s no use blaming the system unless we change ourselves.’’

Some food for thought, surely, but does anyone really care?
SHOCKEY STATS

Of the 66 slots (six for each position) that were up for grabs in the Inter-Academy tournament featuring 23 teams drawn from various parts of the country, the talent scouts ended up with 55

Only one drag-flicker was selected. That too he barely made the cut

The problems

Archaic coaching methods at the acadamies

Lack of incentives for an average hockey player
Too many overage players as the accent is on winning. They stagnate by the time they make the senior ranks

Some solutions

Hire foreign coaches

Better still train Indian coaches to the demands of modern hockey

Inter-school tournaments should be given pride of place