All roads lead to Rome. Indian national coaches seem to follow the dictum very seriously. First came the ‘partial’ senior national camp to Chandigarh where the fourth edition of the Premier Hockey League is going on. National Chief coach Joaquim Carvalho and his team of deputies host training players considered worth for penalty corner conversion, for about an hour daily since last four days. Boys from the participating teams are chosen for these special sessions on their non-playing days. Virtually, it meant the PHL coaches have to spare them on their rest day and their players will not be with the team when they train. Or, under go double dose of training. This is certainly creating murmurs among the boys and PHL coaches, who do not hide their feeling of being `bullying’ for the national duties.
If that is not enough, it is understood now the junior camp will also be shifted to Chandigarh. The junior camp is presently going on at Shahbad, about 60 km from Chandigarh, with coaches Ajay Kumar Bansal and Rajesh Chauhan in attendance.
Indian Hockey Federation that selects State based teams for the PHL had already deputed about 15 boys from the Shahbad camp in the PHL in order to give them ‘exposure’. AK Bansal is now left with just a dozen boys in his camp and wants his boys for training on the sidelines of PHL. Bansal’s team will be participating in the 8-Nation Junior Tournament to be held in Kuala Lumpur in the third week of next month.
Already some teams here have expressed dissatisfaction that they got the IHF’s junior boys only a day before the commencement the PHL, which has affected their preparations. Hyderabad Sultans’ coach Madhukaran attributed his team’s first match defeat on the inaugural day exactly to this factor. His view carries some weight as his team won the second match, with some sort of time available for boys to settle and jell.
It is worthwhile to remember that there is only one turf available where all trainings and the PHL matches need to be staged. The half pitch available at the eastern sides is earmarked for Chandigarh Administration’s hockey academies. The authorities therefore allot only a half side for each team. In the morning hours, two PHL teams practice on each side. If that is not enough, Joaquim’s PC camp is getting about two hours. The turf management is becoming a tricky issue.
So, the main pitch attracts heavy activity and it witnessed a completely avoidable incident too. On Saturday, the Chennai Veerans were training in one half, the Bangalore Lions on the other. Meanwhile Joaquim also reached and asked the Veerans to vacate. As it was not happening, Joaquim entered the field and urged them to vacate. Veerans came out reluctantly, and complained to Tournament Director about them being ‘driven out’. They are upset Joaquim used foul language and is against sporting ethos.
The moot point here is why this mess is created in the first place? Unlike previous three editions of PHL where a good spell of lull was available between the legs, this time its virtually non-stop activity, as the entire PHL is scheduled to be finished in three weeks’ time. Why can’t the national coaches allow the players to just concentrate on the task on hand, rather than dragging them here and there, and in the process, test their loyalties too.
Even a player in the Shahbad camp said that they were asked to attend the camp on their non playing days, and the camps one way distance is 60-70 km!!