‘Pick and Choose’ policy of TD irks Jose Brasa

“The punishment is big, huge, enormous”. This is how India’s chief coach Jose Brasa described the Shivendra’s three-match suspension.

Indian coach Jose Brasa has further termed as harsh FIH World Cup Tournament Director Ken Read’s decision to suspend striker Shivendra Singh for three matches after an incident during the team’s opening match against Pakistan on Sunday.

Talking to reporters at the Maj. Dhyan Chand National Stadium on Monday evening, Brasa said while Tournament Directors retained the right to make such decisions, he had never been witness to such ‘exemplary’ punishment being meted out to a player without any complaints from the on-field umpires or the opposite team.

“I have been to all major tournaments in the world including world cups, for both men and women, Olympics, but have never come across such a decision”, he wondered

“We maintain that Shivendra did not strike the Pakistan player with his stick deliberately,” he said, pointing out that it was severe penalty to make India play with just 15 players instead of 16 over the next three matches. “It will mean that we cannot use our substitutions as effectively and that our players will get tired more than the other sides.”

Brasa said the coaching staff was working to ensure that the suspension would not affect the team’s morale too much. “We are telling the team that it has overcome all hurdles and focus on playing well on the field,” he said. “I am confident that the players have the ability to cope with the physical and emotional demands made of them because of the suspension.”

“We are little bit angry, why to take extreme step when the other side did not even complain about it”, he asked.

There were so omany incidents in the first days matches where more severe acts had been committed than the one by Shivender Singh. If he wants to send a strong message to the other assembled teams here, why you pick us. Why not other teams? Jose asked with ‘josh’.

Even Sandeep Singh was very physically tackled in the team, the player who did that was not picked up for penalization. Two matches were played before our match, why cannot he pick out one action to send the message?”

Acts of this nature should be condemned, though I feel the number matches Shivender was penalized will be reduced in the appeal, it is unfair to us, we are unlucky to be portrayed like this”

Giving a view that that he had to now do with only 15 players for rotation, he asserted this will upset the plans, and players will be tired more.