Hockey eves close ranks to save coach

V Narayan Swamy

NEW DELHI: It was a secret conclave. And it made sure that the Indian women’s hockey team was not suddenly left without a coach, just a few weeks before the Commonwealth Games.

According to highly-placed sources, virtually all the players closed ranks when the team manager, Rupa Saini, tried to get interim coach Sandeep Somesh evicted from the hot seat just after the World Cup campaign last month. As luck would have it, the hush-hush meeting took place in Doha, even as the team was on its way back from the WC in Rosario, Argentina. It’s one point agenda: save Somesh; thwart Saini.

Interestingly, Somesh, a former World Cupper, has already decided to quit after the CWG.

“We were disgusted with her attitude,” sources told TOI. “We could not tolerate the way she cast aspersions on our coach. He did a good job in Rosario. His planning was good. But when we realised that Saini was preparing a negative report on him, we decided to back him completely.”

The meeting in Doha was all about solidarity. First, the seniors in the team had a closed-door meeting; then, they spoke to the rest of the team to check if everybody was in sync.

The reply and the pledge that followed was a vote proclaiming overwhelming support to the coach.

In her report to the ministry, Saini has reportedly said that Sandeep was ‘inexperienced and incompetent’ and that ‘he failed to unite the team’ in Rosario. “His strategies were not effective,” she says, adding that if Sandeep was retained as coach, India’s Asian Games fortunes may plummet. She also demanded the ouster of assistant coach Khalid Modi.

Saini had made similar demands two years back when Sandeep and Modi were roped in to assist the then chief coach MK Kaushik.

Not exactly a rosy situation ahead of the Commonwealth Games, with India going in as one of the favourites after winning gold and silver in successive Games at Manchester (2002) and Melbourne (2006). But the silver lining is that the girls haven’t let the situation go out of hand.

“There were occasions when attempts were made to divide the team in Rosario. Some players were promised Arjuna awards if they backed the mutiny. To put a stop to this, the players got together and sent a mail to the ministry and Sports Authority of India after the Doha meet, saying that nothing was wrong with Sandeep Sir’s planning. It was with the players’ execution. India lost three matches but at the end they finished ninth, two slots above the 11th-place finish in Madrid four years ago,” the sources said.

The developments in the last few days only show that peace hasn’t quite returned to women’s hockey. Sandeep, who took over from MK Kaushik after the latter was removed as the chief coach following accusations of sexually harassing a player, was obviously the players’ choice.

But he has had a tumultuous run so far. He hardly had a week to prepare the team at Patiala for the World Cup. Yet, even as the team left the Indian shores, Hockey India mailed a loaded message to the media: “The Indian women’s team for this World Cup has gone with a set of coaches, including a few who have coached the girls for less than one week. In view of this, there’s a possibility that the team will not produce expected results.”

Now comes the Saini report. Will the team ever overcome the mess?