When Ric Charlesworth was pleasingly brought to India, the media highlighted his career, starting from which domestic club he played, how he was a good cricketer, Member of Parliament, and what was doing after retirement from international hockey – coaching, lectures and book writing etc. The public got enough opportunities to know Charlie’s life and times, and his worthiness to take over the job.

And, is not the same appraisal required for Joquim Carvalho, who declared himself the saviour of Indian hockey as that of his mentor KPS Gill?

Why we are not talking about Joaquim and his past? Why we just restrict ourselves with only – he is former Olympian, coach of the Indian Oil Corporation? Even the public were not told when and why the Indian Oil Corporation threw him out from its roaster recently.

Even his present — why was he removed from PHL, why Indian Oil Players who won the Nehru Cup are chasing him day in and out, what did he demand from domestic tournament organizer to bring internationals to their tournaments and things like that – has not come to the fore.

May be because hockey ceased to be come a serious sport, or media ceased to be serious about it. One of the either is true.

So, it becomes onerous on the shoulders of this small site (stick2hockey.com) to unravel him, and the manner he has built a myth – and how in India if you are a former player, that too of Olympian variety you are not never asked uncomfortable questions, and get away with everything with immunity.

First in the series is why the Mahindra Hockey Team, in which the likes of Dhanraj Pillay played, where Joaquim was coach cum manager, was disbanded?

Yes. Almost 25 active players lost their job when the Mahindra team was disbanded. A select few such as Dhanraj Pillay become jobless for a while and in the end their profile helped them to land in another department, in his case the Indian Airlines. Some others luckily could switch to Air India. And, what about others? They had to all of sudden became paupers. And, who can be blamed for this?

Our great saviour Joaquim Carvalho. What has he done that the management decided to dispense away with hockey once for all. Why the same management which contributed about Rs. 2 million for laying synthetic turf at the Bombay Hockey Association – even the stadium is named after Mahindra — decided to go in for football?

To get rid of Joaquim they got rid of hockey! This has been one of the greatest contributions of one of our former Olympians.
What are the reasons attributed to the whole issue?

Yes we will come to this tomorrow.