Two days back, the Indian hockey team had played a couple of exhibition games in Jalandhar. This senior men’s team included the 18 players who will be representing India at the FIH Champions Trophy — a tournament considered more difficult and elite than the Olympics or the World Cup — next month.
The matches were played against a combined Punjab XI team, led by former India skipper Rajpal Singh. In the two games, one was drawn 3-3 while India XI won the other game 3-2.
The result itself indicates that the games were close. But consider this: the game that India XI won, they were trailing till the 67th minute, before two goals in as many minutes helped them win. The other game, which was drawn, India XI led 3-0 before Punjab XI fought back to level scores in the second half.
What this means is that, playing full strength, a prospective Indian hockey team that will be playing the best in business one month from now was neither able to attack and dominate nor defend comprehensively and stay on top. It must also be remembered that this performance came against a Punjab side that had only three players with international experience – besides Rajpal, there were the discarded Gurbaj Singh and Sarwanjit Singh. The Indian team, on the other hand, had 10 from the Olympics squad, and three more who were part of the senior camp.
Even for a layman, the above statistics will make enough sense to be concerned. But not for those who take the decisions. The two games only proved that the Indian team was even weaker than a state team. And this, when the state team was not at full strength!
“It was basically a Punjab B team. We did not have players like Prabhjot Singh, Deepak Thakur, Kamaldeep Singh, Baljit Singh, Gurjinder Singh and Ravi Pal, because they were busy with the Beighton Cup for their employers,” said Rajpal.
If all these players had been present, it would have been a much better reality check for the Indian team. For, all these players are not only vastly experienced at the international level but have also repeatedly proved they still have hockey left in them by excelling in domestic tournaments and national championships.
As it were, the ‘official’ Indian team had trouble getting past the B side of a state team. All this happened in the presence of chief coach Michael Nobbs, who has suddenly turned completely media-phobic, refusing to talk to anyone.
Hockey India and its bunch of selectors had decided to ‘prepare a team for the future’ and axed senior players from the Olympics squad, making them pay the penalty. But perhaps, it would do well to drop and axe the selectors and the officials for once.
This was the same group of selectors who picked the Olympics squad. After the last-place humiliation in London, they started pointing fingers in all direction – blaming the coach, the players, the trainer, federation, everyone except themselves. Some of the selectors even went to the extent of saying that they knew they had not selected the best team! Since that is the only thing they were supposed to do, one wonders, in which case, what did they do, exactly?
Now the same bunch has selected another group of players. There is no accountability of selectors, no questioning, no deadlines for them. It is the same group of people who have been selectors for ages, irrespective of who comes to power in the federation battles.
If the Indian team’s capabilities are reflected in its performance in the two practice games, there should be no surprises about where India will finish in upcoming tournaments.