April 28, 2008: The Indian Hockey Federation’s image has nosedived since the Indian team’s failure in the Olympic qualifier and the recent Jyotikumaran sting episode. In an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24×7’s Walk the Talk, IHF president K.P.S. Gill speaks about the mess Indian hockey is in and what he thinks is the way out
•My guest today is someone I’m proud to have been a friend of for a quarter of a century — Mr K.P.S. Gill. Always wonderful to have you as a friend, despite the kind of mess hockey is in right now and given how popular you are at the moment.
Popularity and unpopularity are, as the scriptures say: don’t worry about them as they are immaterial things. As far as hockey being in a mess is concerned . . .
the Jyotikumaran episode.
The Jyotikumaran episode. Initially, when you watch that, it appears very, very shocking and I said it . . .
•Very, very shocking.
But when you look at it dispassionately, you see a camera shot of Jyotikumaran receiving money. How much money is not mentioned. Whose money is not mentioned. A case is made out, that this was done to include a specific player in a team going to, I think, the Azlan Shah tournament. Now, the team till then hadn’t been selected and Jyotikumaran is not concerned with the selection for last almost one year.
•So he could have taken the money saying I will try my best. That could be the case?
The case, from what I’ve read, is that they went to him and said that they want to have a tournament which will outdo the Azlan Shah tournament. (They said) we are going to spend so much money, and according to Jyotikumaran’s statement, this was an advance (amount) to be used for making arrangements. . . . Secondly, trying to link that with selection is an entirely despicable act and I cannot condemn that act with more force at my command.
•Why do you say so?
Because selection has always been fair. There are players who will say we were not in the team, therefore we were not selected because somebody else paid the money. And this boy who was mentioned, he belongs to a very, very poor family. He has no father. I don’t know if the journalist who conducted this sting operation knows that he has no father.
•Which boy, the boy who was to be selected?
Who they said is our relative and should be . . . he has already played for the Indian junior team in the nine-nations tournament in Malaysia, in which we were second. We had beaten Australia in the pool matches and in the finals we lost to Australia by a goal. Whenever he came to the grounds he was cheered by the crowds. So he had already been selected and he has already played for India in the juniors.
•So you’d say that Jyotikumaran, if anything, was being greedy and stupid?
Extremely greedy and extremely stupid. But I will not like to comment on it.
•But he could not have swung a selection. That’s what you are saying?
He could have never swung a selection.
•If what you see (on videotape) is accurate, then he was greedy, stupid and was also lying if he was promising to get somebody selected?
See, one thing you have to notice is that . . . except for one mugshot, all the rest is voiceovers.
•No, no, that’s why I’m saying if this is accurate then he was all three — greedy, stupid, and a liar.
Yes, he was all three.
•Let’s come back to the question of the so-called mess in Indian hockey on which we are focused now because of our inability to qualify. Let’s look at the big picture. How deep is the mess? Is it a mess?
No, no, we have talent . . . And after I took over, my emphasis was on youth: bring on younger players and groom them. So what happened? In 1997, we were silver medalists in the Junior World Cup. There is no other team game — leave aside cricket, I am talking about Olympic game — in which we have ever been silver medalist in the junior event in the history of that game.
•But, you know, for all our success in the junior tournaments, there is an unkind explanation, which is that birth certificates are a bit dodgy in our part of the world.
No, no. Then in 2001, we were winners and from 2001-2003 these boys were playing in the senior tournaments and we beat every single nation till certain elements intervened and started deliberately destroying our hockey team.
•What was done by them?
One was to destroy the morale by constantly giving negative reports. And second, by constantly attacking the IHF for what reasons I don’t know. But we will have to find out what reasons are there. We have a great inability to play back-to-back matches. If we have as second match following the first match . . .
•. . . we get wiped out.
We get wiped out, which, according to what people say and with which I don’t agree, is that an Indian body recovers after 36 hours so we need more rest and I don’t agree with that because we have been able to put them through a physical drill in which they are at least able to perform to 50 per cent of their ability. Secondly, there’s a difference between seniors and juniors. We sent our team for a 21-day camp where there was no astroturf, just physical training. And they came back before the Olympics. They were against Holland just after getting off the plane. They made Holland run around in circles. Then they played a four-nation tournament in Germany and we were the victors. We beat Germany, we beat England and we beat whatever team there was and then we went to the Olympics. Prior to Olympics there was a terrible instance, which I wouldn’t like to go over.
But what happened? Let’s know the mystery.
The mystery is that the coach we had sent was drunk 10 days before the Olympics. We had to change. We had no option. There was a German person available and we put him there. He had been an adviser, a coaching adviser, and we put him there and immediately there were differences in the team.
•But was coach drunk at work or drunk after-hours?
There are no after-hours when you are preparing your team for the Olympics. It’s 24 hours. You cannot say these are after hours. When you are preparing the team for Olympics, it’s a sort of penance and you have to be harder working than any of the players. You have to show a level of commitment which the players should emulate.
•. . . which will put Shah Rukh Khan to shame (laughs).
To shame.
•Is it impossible to raise money for hockey?
If you have a group of five-six people who are provided space by two or three channels and constantly speak against hockey, then who will venture out and say OK?
•What was your experience of Mani Shankar Aiyar’s tenure as sports minister? You had a few run-ins there.
No, you see I have to acknowledge that during the last year, and this is continuing, around 10-11 astroturfs have come up. Some were replaced, some were put up anew. Fortunately, even in Sundergarh, one astroturf has been planned.
•So the game is totally different when played on turf?
Totally different. What do Olympians in Holland do? They take children and teach them how to play. What do our people do? They go on TV and say K.P.S. Gill hasn’t done this and that. It’s very easy to say, but where do you find the money? Especially when you gentlemen are constantly denigrating the federation and its president.
•You know, journalists say they don’t know who the selectors are, the IHF is not transparent. The selectors are called a day before selection, watch the game for an hour, and are done with it. Who are the selectors? Do we announce their names so everyone knows? Who are our senior selectors?
Once we announce it, it lasts for four-five years.
•So who are the selectors now?
We have Ganesh. We have . . . I can’t name them off-hand. But we have different set of selectors for U-18.
>•If I call you in the evening? Your forgetting is a bit unusual, as I know K.P.S. Gill forgets nothing. If I call you later, will you give me the names and it’s not a secret? The allegation is that you hide too much and IHF is non-transparent and arbitrary.
Let them ask questions that are related to IHF. One journalist, after announcing that Mr Gill was not available, calls me up. Mr Gill is always available on the telephone. When can anyone say that his phone call was not answered? If his phone call was not answered at that moment, then may be after half an hour or an hour later . . .
•Right now, the clamour is for your head in the IHF.
Clamour in the media.
•So you are done with Jothikumaran now?
Yes, what are we going to do? I have set up an inquiry committee. I have requested a retired high court judge to head the committee. I have requested a retired senior police officer to be a part of the committee. I have requested one businessman who is with the IHF to be a part of the committee and we will wait for the report. The BBC said yesterday that a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Just because of the clamour in the media . . .
•So you are not obliging anybody by going away.
I am not obliging anybody by going away.
•I asked somebody before, ‘What can Mr Gill say that will make news?’ And the answer came, ‘I am quitting?’ That obviously you are not. You are never a quitter.
I am never a quitter and not in circumstances of this nature. I want the government to do just two or three things.
•What?
One, I want government to declare one place as a hockey city. I say, declare Chandigarh as the hockey city because there youngsters are better fed than any other city.
•And put five astroturfs there.
And put five astroturfs there. Automatically the players will come.
•Sydney has more astroturfs than India.
Yes, but here in India, no one can think on those lines.
•Second thing?
First was that, second, you have said, put out five astroturfs, and third is put up a state-of-the-art physical training centre. For hockey is not just a fast game, it’s one of the most taxing games in the world.
•And because of astroturf and the new rules, there is very little whistling and very little respite. Did you ever have a conversation on this with Mani Shanker Aiyer?
No, I tried to meet him on a number of occasions. He was not available.
•How did you react to his downgrading hockey?
How do you react to decisions of this nature? Take them with in your stride and see what you can do. Four years no centre for training for senior players existed in this country. Do people know that? Do these journalists who are writing about it know that there was no astroturf in Bangalore. Bangalore has just one astroturf without floodlights. There is this stupid little gym: why gym is important is because you can buy all sort of equipment and make money. You have one gym and one astroturf. It’s a centre of hockey, so why one, you should have four astroturfs.
•Did you write to the ministry why hockey was degraded?
I didn’t write because when I couldn’t even talk to him then what was the point writing.
>•What about the new minister? He says interesting things.
Let’s see what he does. I know him from 1957.
•What are your views on him? Do you expect the mood to change on hockey?
He has upgraded hockey again, which is a good thing. Then the other thing is that he has changed the observers, which is another good thing.
•Do you feel pressure from IOA, now that they are going to take a view on IHF and they might suspend you and supersede you for bringing the game into disrepute?
IHF has not brought game into disrepute. Whatever they want, they can take the action against IHF, which constitutes of 30-40 units that are independent.
•So you don’t feel pressured by IOA?
No way. But India is a strange country. I was going to be suspended after Black Thunder because people had told lies to the then prime minister, senior officers were told lies. And when the actual inquiry committee went, they found that what they had been told was completely different from what was on the ground. Then an apology came. And the same thing is happening in hockey. The same tactics.
•Except at that time you had to go to Rajiv Gandhi’s darbar and now you have to go to Suresh Kalmadi’s darbar?
No, I didn’t go to anyone’s door. I said, ‘OK you manage Amritsar, I will do the rest of the state.’
•So you are telling Suresh Kalmadi to manage hockey?
I will tell him to manage the senior team if he can, because we have the largest stream of players coming in (according to a new system put in place).
•The FIH (Federation of International Hockey) pushed it?
The FIH pushed it and there are complaints galore.
•Do you have complaints from FIH?
No, not that big.
•Because this talk comes of them taking away the World Cup. You know all of Delhi is excited about the fact that Commonwealth Games and the hockey World Cup is to come in the same year.
No, hockey World Cup has not even been allotted to us.
•So you are not certainly going away? Are there moments you say, ‘Chhodo isey! This is worse that Punjab under terrorism or Assam under the 1983 massacres’?
No, no, here the thing is altogether a different exercise. Different exercises to make little money go a long way, to make that money produce champions. We are among the top junior team in the world.
•And you will vouch for the age certificates for your junior team?
All, not just the junior team. For three years, we have started medical examination for age.
•So what do we see with Indian hockey? Don’t you think the best thing that could have happened to Indian hockey was the inability to qualify?
I think that’s the best thing. I request government for just one thing: give me five astroturfs in Chandigarh . . .
•You are not afraid of the wrath that will fall upon you. From the minister to IOA to media to public opinion?
I have to be grateful to you that you gave me this opportunity to express my view to the public. I don’t speak against individuals, I can speak against the government. I don’t speak against the ministers. I don’t speak against the journalists and I don’t speak against the establishment. I say, give me this if you are really interested. If you’re not, then go to hell and do whatever you want.
(The transcript was prepared by Sujesh Rajan.)
Courtesy: Indian Express