Delayed penalty

In the last few years we have seen headlines stating “Indian hockey in turmoil”, or along the lines of “Hockey hits an all-time low”, on a regular basis. Yet, again and again, the men running the show don’t seem to have learnt any lessons from the fiascos that have been ruining the sport.

The national sport was yet to recover from the debacle of the team not qualifying for the Olympics when the whole Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) was dismantled and a new ad-hoc committee formed. The committee made the right noises about reviving the good old days of Indian hockey. So far, however, the situation remains the same.

Then came the controversy of foreign coach (or was he a consultant?) Ric Charlesworth. Nobody seems to know what actually happened. Charlesworth, after a many will-he-stay-will-he-go moments, finally left the country’s shores after slamming the people running the shame.

Two weeks ago, there came an announcement that former women’s hockey coach M K Kaushik would take charge of the men’s team. All seemed hunky-dory, as Kaushik has the pedigree and knows Indian hockey and is familiar with its ways. After all, he had been the coach earlier and has been associated with the game in one or another capacity for some time. Kaushik seemed excited at the prospect of coaching the team and made the right noises about reviving Indian hockey.

But, out of the blue, there was a sudden turn of events and Kaushik was asked to continue as the coach of the women’s team. While Kaushik refuses to comment on what transpired behind the scenes, he says, “I will continue my services as the coach of the Indian women’s hockey team.”

Meanwhile, Harendra Singh has been appointed as the coach of the national hockey team. No one is sure whether he is a stop-gap arrangement or a long-term solution. A member of the ad-hoc committee which has been responsible for running the game admits, “There was some confusion regarding the appointment of Kaushik and as far as we are concerned we were sure that he would come on board.” But Kaushik’s contract with the Indian Women’s Hockey Federation is apparently till the 2012 London Olympic Games, and he wanted to fulfill his contractual obligations.

Singh is not unfamiliar with the ways of Indian hockey. He has been in the game for some time now and was the coach of the junior hockey team four years back. He has been the coach of the Air India side, which has a lot of members of the senior side as well. But he remains an interim coach while the hunt for a foreign coach continues.

The national team has extremely tough assignments in the next three years and stability is what the game requires according to former players. “What we need is a sense of direction and stability for some time if we want a future for Indian hockey,” says a former player who was at the receiving end, countless times, of the IHF’s notorious ways.

Another member of the ad-hoc committee, however, feels that the game has reached an all-time low and needs time to implement the right amount of changes. “Too much chopping and changing won’t do us any good,” he says. But how will an interim coach help then? “It takes time to find the right coach to lead us in a new era and we are working on it,” he says. Though V Bhaskaran, a former national coach, argues, “What good will a foreign coach do to the current state of affairs?” he says that foreign coaches are most welcome and will prove good only if they are give a free hand. A scenario which is unlikely to happen. “We need some sort of stability in all areas, be it coaching, team selection or development of the game,” he adds.

The way things have been going, it appears that Indian hockey is in for tough and testing times. On the last few occasions, when the situation demanded that authorities tackle adverse situations, they seemed to have wilted. Will this time be any different? This same question keeps on popping up again and again, yet the answer seems to be no different than the last time!