We at s2h recently received a mail on the Indian hockey. The writer is from Australia, and we don’t him or her. We though of publishing it so that we can have a view of what the other part of world thinks on what we do or don’t do. The main interest in publishing it is not just it tallies with the majority view of India, but essentially to respect an outsider’s sentiment, who takes so much pain on India’s pathetic position.
Dear Kazan Arumugam,
It is refreshing to see that someone else is passionate about Indian hockey anymore.
Alas, with the recent Ric Charlesworth debacle, Indian hockey has sunk forever into the doldrums that I fear it will never surface from.
Ric is the best in the business he will likely get the Oz men’d job when Barry Dancer leaves after the Beijing Olympics shortly. Ric has already achieved everything as a player and a coach – his record speaks for himself. Unlike the incompetent outdated coaches India keeps appointing after every crisis.
Unfortunately, the blind bureaucratic egotistical fools in charge of the Indian hockey federation can’t see that, and they don’t deserve him to be honest.Ric wanted to do the best for Indian hockey as he has a love for the way the Indian hockey tradition and culture evolved from.
Simply put, India doesn’t deserve him and now I hope that just like the Cricket Ashes that some old English cricketer burnt after the massive mauling from the Aussies that created the famous series, somebody prominent in journalism should burn Indian hockey’s ashes in an urn and present it to the Indian Hockey federation officials.
Indian hockey is dead and buried and will never regain any status. Forget the past glory days, they are history!
Let’s consider the facts.
Indian’s infrastructure has a few measly astro turf pitches, and as Ric pointed out, an occasional win against a third rate team like Malaysia or South Africa leads them to think they are a medal chance.
Let’s get a reality check here. “ India these days struggles to beat South Africa, today the Aussies thumped SA 10-0 and it could have been more!
Its fortunate enough to live in Australia where even our local grammar school has a water based astro-turf pitch, and the junior hockey at the grass roots has a firm infrastructure. The local interstate competition is better than what the national Indian side faces all year.
Unless India has the likes of innovative and inspired champions like Ric at the helm, Indian hockey is doomed forever. The old fools reliving their glory days from the 50’s are absolutely a waste of time and effort.
I do bring some credibility to this email as I represented England at the U21 level in my youth, and also had the privilege to play professional hockey in Holland with the likes of the Kruize brothers and Roderick Bowmann, class players in the Dutch league in their time.
Alas Indian hockey is dead; I don’t envy your task in trying to resurrect a lost cause.
Indian hockey is resorting to band-aid solutions to its problems, but unfortunately, there is not going to be an overnight fix.
RIP – Indian Hockey