Factions, feuds, cribs, complaints
RECENTLY I was going through a book on Mesopotamian civilization. I wanted to find out if there indeed was as a great civilization ruling the world from Babylonia, whatever happened to it? Why isn’t there any big trace – of course there are many claimants to the Euphrates-Tigris heirdom – apart from the ‘Great’ Osama Bin Laden? The answer lay in a parallel much closer home, much closer to our hearts: Indian hockey.
Like the rulers from Babylon, the stick-work sorcerers from Bhopal and Bombay were brilliant in their abilities. Like the kings of Mesopotamia, the dribblers from Mysore and Madras were fantastic in their skills. But that one small concept that plays a big role in the conquests of an army and the successes of a sport team was missing. Yes. If only India and Mesopotamia had followed the thumb-rule of ‘One for all and All for one’ the history of the world on one side, and of course the history of Olympic hockey would have been indeed different.
Now, why do I compare Osama Bin Laden, a maniacal terrorist, to our marvellous magicians of hockey? Because both are indeed similar in their psychological mindsets. Both are extremely talented, supremely gifted and richly endowed with skills and abilities. Both are epitome of commitment to their cause and dedication to their duty. And both choose methods that are extremist and result in self destruction!
Staunch hockey lovers might find this analogy a bitter pill to swallow, cross your hearts and tell me if India haven’t been their worst enemies in Olympic hockey?
The revered KD Singh ‘Babu’, as the coach of the Indian team in 1972 Munich, declared that “the Europeans are conspiring to break the hegemony of Asian hockey” when a rule change replaced the 25-yard bully with the 16-yard free-hit. Now, Babu’s feeling might have been true and profound, given his gifted faculties, but when a National coach comes up with such declarations it only leads to demoralisation of the entire hockey structure. Instead, if Babu had thought and executed a method to overcome this conspiracy, which is what every champion in any walk of life does, India would have continued as the benchmark for style and strategy. Why should India worry if at all the European powerhouses were conspiring against us, if we were sure of our skills and strategy?
Another pertinent point that comes to mind is the absence of any Indian voice in the Hockey Rules Board against these conspiracies. Right from the day Jimmy Nagarvala was nominated to the HRB, India never went unrepresented in the apex body to decide on the rules, but how many were present in more than mere physical terms is a point of discussion for hockey historians.
Late Gian Singh, an Olympian umpire of repute had once quipped me, when I broached the subject of Euro conspiracy “Look young man. There’s nothing called conspiracy in the world of sport. Rules and regulation have to be changed and modified if a sport has to evolve. There’s no point in Indians cribbing about the rule changes. That only shows we don’t have attitude and aptitude to adapt to the new systems.” What an objective observation I thought, especially when Pakistan had adapted to the new rules and modified their gameplan accordingly in order to maintain their ‘leading’ status in the world. Whereas India got caught in a time warp and refused to shrug off the ‘past glory’ Pakistan moved from strength to strength emphasising one basic rule: “Rules are one and the same for everybody.”
Like Ron Hendricks, the Father of Indian Hockey Journalism, points out in his Wills Book of Excellence – Hockey, “Indeed, the beauty that was Indian hockey has been lost somewhere and an empire lies in ruins. … they (India) have looked down upon the benefits to be gained from indoor hockey and they have not applied their minds to changes in the rules and tactics.”
In the discussion this week, you’ll find India remain on the medals podium at the Olympics, but a gradual decline was too obvious.
1964 Tokyo: IN the aftermath of the 1960 defeat, India appointed Habul Mukherjee, a man of Spartan habits, as the coach. Known as a martinet for discipline, the pan-chewing Habul was the chief motivator of the Indian Hockey Force at Tokyo. Habul didn’t eventually make it to Tokyo (perhaps the first instance of a coach being sacked just before a major tournament), forced to make way for 1952 Helsinki gold medallist Dharam Singh to mark as the first instance of a player doubling up as a coach in an Indian team, but his contribution in forging the Tokyo unit was immense.
India, unlike in the past seven Olympic campaigns, had to huff, puff and scratch the bottom of their reserves before making it to the semifinals. A 6-0 win against lowly Hong Kong was India’s biggest win in the preliminary phase – 1-all draws against Germany and Spain, a 2-1 scrape through against the Netherlands, a 3-0 win against Canada, a 2-0 success against B