Has anyone in Indian hockey circle or, within IHF,
bothered to ask/know why AK Bansal, among the few
successful coaches around in the country who have worked
at the grassroot level, been sidelined for the next
PHL, starting in December?
I want the Australian legend and newly-appointed
Technical Expert of Indian hockey, Ric Charlesworth
and FIH which is behind the ‘Promote Indian hockey’
project, to know about the hurdles that come in the
way of encouraging Indian hockey.
This is not the first time. IHF president KPS Gill
didn’t like Bansal, so, he was removed from the post
Cup victory in the 1990s. If you think such whimsical
attitude towards coaches and players, was only the
prerogative in the headstrong Gill’s kingdom, then, you are mistaken. Actually, it’s part of India’s sporting
culture.
One Mr Satapathy, whose name probably you’ve
never heard of, wasn’t happy that Bansal got the
credit for Orissa Steelers’ winning the PHL title last
year. Surely, in the eyes of India’s sports
administrators, it’s a serious crime for which coaches
must pay a price. The Delhi-based coach spent several
years in Orissa’ s backward districts in the early
1990s to mentor several adivashi players, including
former India captain and ace defender Dilip Tirkey and
others. When the talented but low-profile Orissa team
made an entry in the second-tier of PHL in 2005-06, no
other coach was interested but Bansal happily took
over the team. Not surprisingly, they went on to win the
PHL 2nd tier title. But, Mr Satapathy, a lawyer by
profession and secretary of the Orissa Hockey
Association obviously thought it wasn’t good enough
argument for retaining Bansal for PHL 2007-08.
Bansal
for his astute analysis during the PHL matches by
ESPN, whereas Satapathy, who was the manager of the
team was ignored. Therefore, Bansal had to be thrown
out of the job. Imagine the temerity of a coach, who
had “merely” contributed by guiding his team to the
PHL 2nd tier in the first year and then the PHL title
the next time. Bansal and coaches like him should be
taught a lesson that it’s not enough. You have to pay
obeisance to your administrative boss first and ensure
that the world should be told that, while he was
merely the coach, the actual catalyst for Orissa’s
stunning back-to-back victories was Mr Satapathy, the
manager and secretary of the local association.
We are obviously expecting too much that Gill should
have tried to find out why his winning team’s coach
was not included for PHL 2007-08? That’s not Gill’s
problem, as he had famously said about the brilliant
youngster Rajiv Mishra when his career was finished
due to an injury.
It’s the same story for the players also. Gagan Ajit
Singh was ruling the ‘D’ from 2001-03 but these days,
he’s more busy with training for Punjab Police on how
to control law and order in his district. Viren
Rasquinha has been rising as a midfielder since his
debut in 2002 and was recently a major hit in the
German league.
But, the other day when we met over
dinner after the soft-spoken had returned from his
interview at the Indian School of Business
(Hyderabad), he told me, “The game has given me
everything, I wish to continue playing top-level
hockey.” However, when I asked him about a call from
IHF (In Indian sports, it will be unfair to call it
Indian team; more appropriate to describe as IHF’s
team), he remained silent and dodged a reply till the
end of our conversation. Centre-forward Deepak Thakur,
medio Bimal Lakra, the list is long of the players who
were killed in their 20s. Imagine, they were part of a
team, which was regarded by FIH president Els Brenda
as “the best talent to come up in a long time from
India”. At some point or the other, these talented
players had lost their careers to the Satapathys of
Indian hockey.
Pic Captions
Top: Padamshree Dilip Tirkey hugging his coach AK Bansal
Middle: Present national team captain Prabodh Tirkey watches his team mates celebrating the PHL III title win last year at Chandigarh
Bottom: ‘Sacked’ coach Bansal with some of the foreign players of Orissa Steelers