After finishing seventh at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, Indian hockey was in a state of shock and in complete disarray. As usual the IHF misread the situation before mishandling the issues. Proof: IHF president R.N. Prasad’s Barcelona postmortem. He said inter alia, “If coach Balkrishen Singh’s salary had been disbursed through the IHF the performance would not have been so bad”. What do you expect from his Fact Finding Committee? Simple: banning of entire ‘indisciplined’ team. Sensing trouble smarter of the lot, captain Pargat Singh included, announced ‘retirements’ – only to stage a come back later – while sophisticated of them like Jude Felix, Jagbir Singh and Dhanraj Pillay sought green pastures in foreign club assignments.
Post Barcelona, no good news at all. The Indira Gandhi Gold Cup, in which a new team was to be tried, did not take off first due to Maharashtra earthquake and then the bomb blasts in Bombay, the host city. Meanwhile the coach Harmik Singh was sacked, without getting his team tested in any tournament!
37-year old Zafar Iqbal was the new coach. Sample of two welcome messages he got. Nandy Singh: “Too young, may not draw respect from players”; another Olympian R.S. Bhola: “He does not even have a coaching diploma”. Insensitive IHF asked Ashok Kumar to be Zafar’s deputy. Gentleman Ashok spurned offer: “Advisor or anything else is fine, but not assistant coach.”
But history should thank ego-less Zafar who was till then playing member of the Indian Airlines. With enough PR skills, the delightful winger combined his stardom with persuasive skills, built a team from bits and scratches. Those pre-Gill days Selection Committee functioned genuinely, the IHF bosses hardly interfered in team selection. So coach’s voice heard and choices heeded.
Zafar brought Felix and Pillay back, while polishing many rookies to sparkle. After a successful South Africa tour and a struggling Alps Cup outing (India defeated Austria in the final in tie-breaker), India set off to Poland for the World Cup Qualifier at Poznan in late 1993.
What a turn around was waiting to happen at Poznan. Like a team possessed, India won all the matches, including 4-1 defeat of World Cup holders Holland, till obtaining enough points for booking World Cup ticket. A bonus: Mukesh Kumar, Poznan’s ‘Best Player’. Uniform opinion of those who witnessed the event: ‘Best team seen in long, long time’.
The glorious team: Goalkeepers: Ashish Ballal & A.B. Subbaiah, Defenders: Cornelius D’Costa, Rajnish Mishra & Arif Md, Halves: Sandeep Somesh, Shakeel Ahmed, Sanjay Bist & Jude Felix, Forwards: Mukesh Kumar, Sabu Varkey, Ravi Naicker, Dhanraj Pillay, Imran-ul-Haq, Gavin Ferreira & Atif Idris.
Read again the team. Anything strange? No. No. But ah Yes, a rarity: None from Punjab, granary of Indian hockey.
For a state that had an unparalleled contribution to hockey, this was simply unacceptable. The fact that not a single genuine Punjab player was left out in the squad stirred them. Debates ensued. Some advocated introspection, some sang requiem for hockey in the State. But, there were some with a tunnel vision: They argued: ‘There is none in the IHF to take care of our interest’. The fact was Patiala’s Gursewak Singh was the IHF General Secretary! Luminaries like Ashwini Kumar advised for grass root work rather than rooting for regionalism.
However, the regional elements, minority in number but vocal and assertive, took control of the situation. Sulking players from the region lent colour to the ‘Oust Prasad’ campaign. A Bhopal lobby opposed to then IHF Vice-President Guffran-e-Azam, a sitting M.P., too joined them.
Pakistan’s defeat of India in the Hiroshima Asia Cup final a few months later, a panic, defeatist move by Prasad & Co. to postpone IHF election by three months and their overt attempts to ban Indian players in foreign clubs through the Asian Hockey Federation backdoor, and all, presented Prasad in a poor light. Poor fellow Prasad did know advancing election is a success formula, not vice versa. Former players announced fasting, issued hard hitting statements. Prasad lost control, his deputy Gufran called the shots from the backstage, and announced election at Bhopal, his home turf.
Kanwar Pal Singh Gill, Punjab Police superemo, an unknown entity in sport, was approached. The ‘Super Cop’, on the peak of popularity after the ‘Operation Black Thunder’, jumped into the ring. Perfunctorily, Gill was the president of Punjab Hockey Association, not elected but due to a peculiar PHA constitution that makes incumbent DGP of Punjab Police its president and senior most police official president of every District Hockey Association. (Recently, Ajitpal Singh castigated practice in a seminar).
In about a month’s time, India got a new IHF president in Gill. At Bhopal AGM in June 1994, amidst a posse of ‘imposed’ Punjab po