Bickering Returns to haunt Indian Hockey

By Sandeep Narayan in New Delhi

Selection committee members express their resentment at being ignored for recent foreign trips

ON the exterior, everything seems to be calm and peaceful in Indian hockey but the people who are not so ignorant about the situation will tell you that a storm is brewing between the new bearers of the sport.

It looks as if some egos are being hurt at the Indian Olympic Association ( IOA) run ad hoc committee and selection committee and those affected have expressed their anger over the functioning of the committee.

Apparently, members of the selection committee have shown their disappointment in being ignored for foreign trips and also from the fact that they have been kept out of the loop when it comes to making important decisions regarding the team.

“ Why is it that the administrators who have no experience in the sport are the ones who are repeatedly tagging along with the team during the foreign tours? Take the team’s next tour to Argentina. Why has no selector been included in the list? How is one to judge the talent if we can’t follow the team,” was the view of a selection committee member who preferred to remain anonymous.

“ Mohammed Aslam Khan ( Convener) has gone on two trips already for which funds amounting to Rs 5 lakhs were spent.

Those funds were given to the ad hoc committee to promote the sport, not to sponsor their foreign trips,” he told M AIL T ODAY . In his defence, Mohammed Khan said: “ Those two events, the Hockey Congress in Los Angles and Beijing Olympics, required a member of the hockey committee to be present and I was selected to go by the federation.

So who so ever has problem with that can come forward and address their concerns.” The bickering between the two groups of the ad hoc committee goes so deep that the selection committee member was also not pleased with the late announcement of Sandeep Singh as the new captain of the Indian team.

“ We had unanimously decided Sandeep as the new captain the day the team was announced in Bhopal. But because some people were looking to gain publicity, it was announced after a week,” added the source.

It seems that rather worrying that the new caretakers of hockey are more interested in bickering over sports tours and publicity, problems that existed during the KPS Gill regime.

Meanwhile, the ad hoc committee has lined up a couple of foreign experts – Jose Brasa of Spain being a front runner – for the new men’s hockey coach, their decision to choose Sandeep Singh as captain may leave a few people hurt and disappointed.

Sandeep was not part of the team when Joaquim Caravalho was the coach and was recently included in the team after Gill was removed.

“ I know many senior members will be unhappy with the fact that they were overlooked for the captain’s post. But we are looking ahead and the time is more suitable for a younger captain,” said a selection committee member.

“ We had many names in the list like Deepak Thakur, Tushar Kandekar and Dilip Tirkey. But we wanted to go with Sandeep.” Sources close to the team, however, have claimed that Sandeep’s closeness to the coach in- charge Harendra Singh might be the reason for his selection.