‘We will have multiple captains’

New Indian hockey coach Michael Nobbs got down down to business on Monday to formally kick-start his five-year tenure and the Australian straightaway made his intentions clear, stating among many things that there will no single captain for the squad but instead will have a leadership group.

“There will no single captain,” said Nobbs on the first day of the two-month long national camp here at the Sports Authority of India, South Centre.

“Sometimes a captain or coach might not be accessible. The player might be scared to approach either one of them. Although I am a friendly person, few players would dare to come and share their concerns or ideas. They would just restrain themselves since I am a coach.

“The same thing could happen to a captain. However, if there is a leadership group, then a player has options to express his ideas. He could go and talk to anybody in the group he feels comfortable. Super coach Ric Charlesworth, the pioneer of the idea, has been highly successful with this formula and I don’t see anything wrong with it.”

The ‘leadership group’ idea or to simply put it the multiple captain theory could be fraught with danger in a nation where emotions play a big role, primary example being former Kolkata Knight Riders coach John Buchanan who courted disaster in IPL 2.

“There is no need to worry,” said an optimistic Nobbs. “I have already spoken about this to a few players and they are okay with it.

“The idea is to have the group of 4-5 take equal responsibility. Training and team building will improve. (Australian) football teams have done it and have been successful. At the end of the day, we need the team to do the job. Hockey, as you’ll know, is a team sport and we all need to work together to achieve success.”

Nobbs has taken over as the coach at a crucial time when Indian hockey is at the crossroads. Two federations — Hockey India and Indian Hockey Federation — are still fighting for control while results on the pitch have been far from satisfactory. “I am what I am today mainly because of Indian hockey. Agreed, we are on a bumpy road at this moment and the track could be the same for the next 12 months,” said Nobbs, who was inspired to take up the sport after watching the late Balkishan Singh, former Indian coach, dribble the ball during a coaching stint in Adelaide.

“Frankly, I would give ourselves only 50-50 chance in qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics. It is a really tough task because all the top nations have spent a lot of money in grooming their squad. We are just starting now.

However, I am completely confident we would finish on the podium in 2016 (at Brazil).
There is a lot of work to be done. The whole world is watching India at the moment and if we do the right things, we definitely can see daylight. We all, at the end of the day, want to be successful,” added the Australian.

Nobbs also said he would set up an interactive website that would contain the complete database of the players. The website will have an innovation zone wherein players express their ideas, a blog zone and a medical zone that will contain information on their injuries and rehabilitation work.

On the playing style, Nobbs stressed that he would stick with the Indian ways. “I will continue with the Indian style of 5-3-2-1. All that it needs is modernisation.

“The problem is we get caught on counter-attacks and fitness. In Australia when a player loses possession he is quick to grab the ball back. Also, when a player wants to pass the ball he has at least three options. The Indians are good, their strategies just needs a bit of tweaking.”