Federation First or Foreign Coach

By S. Kannan

IT MAY be tempting to think that Indian hockey is back on track after entering the final of the Azlan Shah tournament in Ipoh, Malaysia.

But the reality is results in this tournament can be misleading about how good a national team is, though full credit must be given to penalty corner specialist Sandeep Singh for his superb efforts till now.

Having scored six of India’s nine goals so far in the tournament, there is no doubt India’s new captain is in great form and has shown he can be entrusted with penalty corners.

As India prepare for the final against Malaysia on Sunday, people will be praying that the visitors return with the trophy, which they last won in 1995. At a time when people at home are still hoping Indian hockey can see a major revival and reach the heights of the era gone by, there are a lot of things which need to be put in perspective.

No doubt, just as Sandeep has been one of the star performers in Ipoh, people would do well to recall the way Dilip Tirkey has served Indian hockey. Having played 405 international matches till date, he has been the man who has handled the defence with a stout heart.

Coach Harendra Singh said after Saturday’s win against Pakistan that people do not give Tirkey the credit he deserves. Agreed, Harendra has a point, but if the coach thinks one day Tirkey will be as popular as a cricketer competing in the IPL, it will never happen.

Harendra, who has been appointed by the IOA ad hoc committee and hasn’t been given the status of a full- time coach, has done well to ensure India are back on the winning trail.

But then, even in the last edition of the Azlan Shah that was held after the ad hoc committee took over, India were in the final where they lost to Argentina. Those were the days just after India had returned from Chile, where the team failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics and AK Bansal was the coach.

From the last Azlan Shah to now, it is not as if Indian hockey has made dramatic improvement. And if one thought critics were exaggerating that Indian hockey was stuck in mediocrity, the point was reiterated by International Hockey Federation ( FIH) president Leandro Negre, who was in the Capital with the FIH team last week.

The new FIH boss was here to check the progress on two venues for the 2010 World Cup.

But apart from ensuring that work at the National Stadium and the Shivaji Stadium are on track, Negre also made it clear that the growth of Indian hockey is linked to who runs the sport in the country.

It has been over a year since the ad hoc committee was put in place and the men who call the shots in it are not the ones who brought us Olympic glory.

And that is why Negre was emphatic when he told the media that for the World Cup to happen in India, it was a must that an elected hockey body be put in place as soon as possible.

There is a lot of talk that the ad hoc body is in no hurry to hold elections and go through the process of unifying the two hockey bodies — men’s and women’s.

But now that Negre has said that only one federation can be in place, which will run both men’s and women’s hockey in the country, the time has come when the ad hoc body gets proactive.

It is easy to keep postponing elections on the pretext that there is a case pending in the court. To be sure, if people are also asking what the ad hoc body has done compared to the KPS Gill run Indian Hockey Federation, there aren’t too many answers.

Another area which needs to be addressed is the issue of foreign coach. If Sports Minister MS Gill is to be believed, then the ad hoc body, till a fortnight back, had done nothing on the case of Spanish candidate Jose Brasa, whose wish- list was huge.

In front of Negre, the ad hoc body said negotiations with Brasa were in the ‘ final stages’. What that means, no one knows.

But just as we hope that India returns with the Azlan Shah Cup from Ipoh, there is also an urgent need for a united hockey body to be in place. Six months is the time the FIH has given them. So which comes first, a unified body or a foreign coach? My guess is as good as that of Leandro Negre!