Indian hockey tries to find its feet, and a missing laptop

NEW DELHI

AT the end of the day, you can always pin the blame on technology – or the lack of it.
AK Bansal, the coach of the Indian hockey team, has felt handicapped without the use of technology that has become an integral part of any sport today.

But when he tried to locate the software that had been acquired by the Sports Authority of India and had been in use by the Indian team before the ad-hoc committee took over in April, he realised it was untraceable.

SAI had procured an analysis software a few years ago, at the cost of “a few lakhs” and then loaned it to the Indian Hockey Federation. As it turns out, they haven’t got it back yet, despite the fact that the IHF was suspended a few months ago.

Sources in the SAI say that the laptop had been given to the IHF for use by the national coach to study the strengths and weaknesses of the Indian players, as well as those of their opponents.

And as far as they are concerned, former national coach Joaquim Carvalho had been using it until the Olympic qualifiers in Chile, where India’s Beijing dream came crashing down.

“We are trying to locate him (Carvalho) so that we can get the laptop back,” the SAI source said, adding that they would pass it onto Bansal, the present coach, as soon as they got their hands on it.

Untraceable CARVALHO, when contacted, said that the laptop given by SAI wasn’t even functional. “Instead, the IHF had to buy another laptop along with a software called dragflick, developed by a Bangalore-based company.

“In any case, it was handled by assistant coach Ramesh Parameswaran and on our return from Chile, the management had handed it back to the IHF,” Carvalho said.

Bansal, who is with the team preparing for the junior Asia Cup in Hyderabad, said he felt the need for the software during the recent Azlan Shah meet in Malaysia itself.

“In fact, I spoke to the ad-hoc body’s convenor about the urgency to get it back. It always helps when you can play back videos and pinpoint mistakes players commit at training or in matches.It’s a handy tool,” he said.

The ad-hoc committee, headed by Aslam Sher Khan, would’ve known fixing Indian hockey’s myriad problems wouldn’t be easy.

But even they wouldn’t have thought locating a missing laptop would be part of their job.