Sponsorship money not a distraction: Nobbs
Biswajyoti Brahma, TNN
NEW DELHI: The whopping increase in sponsorship money for Indian hockey, announced recently by Sahara India Pariwar, has not caused any distraction for national team players, chief coach Michael Nobbs said on Monday.
He said that the players were focused on the all-important Olympic qualifiers beginning on February 18.
The Indian team had created a flutter just before the 2010 World Cup, also held in New Delhi, by striking and skipping practice at the Pune camp for several days demanding payment of dues. This time around, even as more money is coming into hockey, the players were keeping their minds on the game, the coach believes. “There’s absolutely zero distraction,” Nobbs said as his team rounded off a training session under floodlights at the Major Dhyanchand National Stadium.
“The players know why they are here. They are here to win. They are happy and focused,” Nobbs said.
Just two months before the 2010 World Cup, the players had gone on a strike and the crisis was resolved after five days. This time around, HI is set to receive around Rs 50 crore as sponsorship amount from Sahara over the next five years. To ensure that some of the money goes to players, the HI has already announced that it would introduce retainership fee for senior as well as U-19 players which would be based on the performance of the players as well as the team.
Nobbs, meanwhile, said that India would not be playing any practice game with other participating teams in the run up to the qualifiers as the team wants to take rivals by surprise.
“There’s no weak team in the fray. Everybody is competing for a berth in the Olympics. We being the highest ranked, all of them would naturally try to play their best against us.”
Nobbs said that he had worked on the areas where the Indians showed weakness during the series against South Africa. “We have worked on taking penalty corners,” he said.