Times of India: Now, a development squad to intensify competition
By Manuja Veerappa
BENGALURU: Consistency and progress have eluded the Indian men’s hockey team for a while now. Following the eighth-place finish at the Rio Olympics last year, the shock losses to Malaysia and Canada at the Hockey World League semifinals in London in June, where India finished a poor sixth, put the focus back on team composition.
Players with niggles and aches have remained in the side just as a few jaded seniors for whom the rope only seems to get longer. But buoyed by the team’s showing in the European tour this month, where a young Indian team beat the formidable Netherlands twice, Hockey India’s high performance director David John believes, nobody in the team or the core group can take his place for granted.
An indication in this direction was the inclusion of Junior World Cup winning players defender Varun Kumar and striker Armaan Qureshi, who made the European trip despite not being among the core group probables.
Said John: “I am looking at talented players outside the core group to come into the fold. I don’t think it is a player’s right to stay in the core group if he is not performing through the year. Senior players will have tougher competition to keep their place in the team. The same set of players cannot be playing all the tournaments because we need to develop the younger players and give them national team exposure. What we have done is create competition for each position within the squad and that is healthy for Indian hockey.”
A progressive step in the direction is the formation of a development squad of players drawn from academies across the country. The camp for the squad is under way at SAI, South Centre here and a team of 15 will be picked later this month.
Elaborating on the squad, the Australian explained, “The development group is based in Bengaluru and we are looking at players from that group to make the core group based on performance. The development group has been selected keeping in mind the Australian Hockey League to be held in Perth from September 25-October 9. This group also qualifies for selection for the Asia Cup to be held in Dhaka in October. We obviously can’t take players only from the senior group for the Asia Cup. With the focus also on the Johor Cup for juniors later this year we need a combination of junior players from the senior and development group.”
The development group will also be a feeder to SAI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) team. “Many in the development group has been playing at various academies. There are a lot for shortcomings which we are trying to work on over next three weeks to prepare them for match conditions. During this period, they will be coached by junior team coaches Jude Felix and BJ Cariappa. This arrangement will work until the selections are done. After that, we will look at hiring an Indian coach to prepare them for the Australian Hockey League. We are also looking at the development squad playing domestic matches (as part of CoE) to ensure exposure to playing together as a team,” informed John.
The program also includes a women’s development team which will be available for selection for the women’s League in Australia.
‘Oltmans under pressure’
With a lot of chopping and changing in the team for recent tournaments, there has been speculation about Hockey India being unhappy with senior team chief coach Roelant Oltmans’ choice of players. While David John refused to comment on the future of the Dutchman, whose contract runs until the 2020 Olympics, he did admit Oltmans was under pressure.
“The performance of the team was very good in Europe. Having so many youngsters doing well gives him a slightly different focus. There is always pressure on an Indian team coach to perform because of our expectations. His next big assignment is the Asia Cup and we should look at a top-2 finish there. Also, we have the Hockey World League Final at Bhubaneswar later in the year. So obviously, there is going to be pressure on Oltmans every time we play,” he said, adding, “All coaches are judged based on the team’s performance after every tournament. That’s the same across the world. Every coach is on notice each time the team goes out to represent the country.”