Hockey India owes the nation an apology – and a serious course correction

Four years ago India missed the Olympics. Whom the nation was angry at for this? The coach, the physiotherapist, the doctor, any player of the team? None. The nation’s anger was fully and thoroughly aimed at Kanwar Pal Singh Gill, famously known as KPS Gill. He was the head of the Indian Hockey Federation, which steered hockey from top in India.

What was the fault of this gentleman? He was neither a player, coach nor a fitness expert. Why to blame him, and ask for his head? Was the nation barked at wrong tree?

After all, he sent the team to Australia for preparation, organized many such tours, gave full freedom to coach to select his team, plan tours and even ignore serving advisor Ric Charlesworth and thus stood by his loyal coach.

Despite Gill performing his administrative and financial obligations, he was the first target of everyone alive in March 2008. The nation went tongs and hammer against an individual, KPS Gill. It was not without its merit or reasons.

For, its in everybody’s realm of knowledge that disaster of the kind we have had at Chile Olympic Qualifier could not have come in one match or tournament.

It’s a collective failure. Chile was only last straw. Chile was the last gateway to Olympics after missing many others including missing right slot in the previous Asian Games.

Each entry gate to Beijing was closed, each time KPS Gill had put different set of coach and support staff and such acts.

It was his moral responsibility to steer India to Olympics. He failed. He was guillotined. He was villain of Indian hockey.

London now is as big embarrassment as Chile.

London has now made us a laughing stock amidst the comity of hockey nations.
London’s message to mass (also to market forces)is dangerous of being a hopeless sports in coma.
Hockey is quoted for all that is ill of India.

Nobody can close eyes to the all pervading negativity. None can simply consider London is a passing phase like of which hockey has had many in the past.

Yes, London is equally a disaster as that of Chile.

After Chile, the nation was angry. Now, the nation is sad. Both are equally bad, disastrous for hockey.

The nation definitely thinks hockey is dead, and irreparable. It is undergoing a hockey trauma of sort.

Someone in the world is responsible for this, as was the case in 2008 when Gill was rightly butt of anger.

The culprit now is Hockey India, and its face, Narinder Batra.

Again facts first.

Hockey India did not spare any effort in giving the team the best of preparation. It brought a foreign coach; he brought his own physio. Most of the support staff continued from Gill’s era. Indian team had amble preparatory tours, acclimation tours, including a tournament on blue turf, a long Europe and Australia tours and what not. HI even went a step ahead, organized a grand gathering of former Olympians. It even set aside murmurs of appointment of political manager, but went by the choice of chief coach instead.

Hockey India, as the body governing the sport, has done everything possible, and everything needed, to prepare and motivate the London bound team. Nobody questioned it and will never ever.
But unfortunately the misunderstanding here is that Hockey India supported and prepared Indian team.

Sorry, it is not correct, it is not the fact.

The fact is Hockey India prepared and supported its own team.
The team that represented India at the Olympics is not the Indian team. Its actually Hockey India team that represented India.

No country on the earth will leave out 50 percent of its own players from trials and thus deny their right to fight for a place in the Olympic team.

Hockey India exactly did the most unpatriotic and unpardonable act.

It was arrogant. It asked the hapless players to prove their patriotism, and as per HI, it was to be with HI or the World Series Hockey.

Hockey India in fact lied — to score cheap points.

Hockey India told us that the FIH is against WSH Players, and if even if HI selects them the FIH will forbid them from Olympics.

But if what happened to WSH players in Pakistan blew it.

Rehan Butt, who scored the only goal of the opening match, which gave Pakistan a rousing start (draw against Spain), the ever-green Waseem Ahmed, who struck the winner five minutes from the hooter (against South Africa) result of which kept Pakistan in the race for the semis till the last match, Shakeel Abbasi, who was definitely the unofficial best Player of Pakistan, are all WSH players.

Pakistan federation protected them, pretended a punishment and went against the so called threatened ban of FIH.

Now, had Pakistan too was as arrogant as India, as unkind to its own stars, what would have happened.

What else?

India and Pakistan would have definitely played for the 11th and 12th position. Without Rehan, without Waseem, without Shakeel, Pakistan would not have finished top ranked Asian country at London.

So, what is the message?

A hapless foreign coach – Michael Nobbs knows heart of heart what he wanted — was asked to select a team from whatever stuff Hockey India thought was India.

What Hockey India think India is, need not be what actually the India is.

An Arjun Halappa, a Bharat Chhikara, an inform Ravi Pal Singh, Hockey India’s own OQ captain Raj Pal Singh, for instance, were not even called for the trial; they were in the Australia tour and overnight turned out be ‘UnIndia’ just because they made their intention clear of taking part in the WSH.

Hockey India was ruthless, and it was unnecessary and avoidable, in rejecting the claims of stars of WSH. Had a Gurjinder – who struck goals in numbers through penalty corners, and was just below 20 in age—been in the trial, the likes of Sandeep Singhs and Raghunaths would have come under pressure, and the pressure of that type would have turned them deliverers rather than automatic choices which they have had become ultimately in London, and because of that complacency had no compulsion to deliver.

Loyalty was the yardstick for the Hockey India team.

First time in Indian hockey annals, a team was selected openly on the basis of loyalty.

First time in the annals of Indian hockey we did not win a single match in the Olympics.

Don’t you think both are directly related?

Strictly speaking, both are directly proportional.

Now one might tend to raise the query: How do you sure India would have fared better had an Arjun, a Raj Pal, a Ravi Pal is included?

I have two answers

Firstly, we would not have won the Gold, but they would have done as much as Pakistan against what Rehan, Shakeel and Waseem’s feats.

Secondly, if the players are less committed, contended to be mere Olympians, if they don’t have even basics correct – all views put forth by none other than chief coach Michael Nobbs himself – its all result of wrong premise by which the London team had been selected.

One can easily make out this: By going by loyalty as the sole criterion of team selection – Hockey India has exposed itself as a body of arrogance, a body that lacked compassion for contemporary players and deprived national coach of full look at the national talent resources.
Under the given condition, it would have been surprise had India fared anything better than what it ultimately did.

Don’t you think Hockey India owes an apology to the nation?

Has it not committed a crime on present players because of which it brought a humiliation of unheard of magnitude on the world stage as big and significant as Olympics?

Everybody design for success, Hockey India by design led India to fall.
Its intentions were not sincere, action was not honest, priority was success, was unbecoming of a national body.

Sports governance is not merely organizing preparatory tours and filling slots.
Its sincerity, its honesty, its purposefulness, it is total commitment. Then leave players to what they are expected of.

Here is a case where both – organization and its loyal players, loathe and mundane – collectively let the nation down.

First step therefore before reconstruction and resurrection process commence, is not any Inquiry Committee, as is being planned, but a sincere apology from Hockey India to public, and a assurance it will not fiddle with players’ any more in their quest for chair.

Without which all other actions will be construed mere knee jerk reactions — to buy time.

If Gill deserved national humiliation — dissolution of IHF etc — for not taking hockey to the Olympics, Hockey India as an organization deserves equal punishment for seeing India at the bottom of the table when every sport in India is looking up.

Hockey India should not preempt with lip apology and then go business as usual. It has to drastically make a course correction — come what may I will not harm any Indian player, and stand up to safeguard their interests.

When a country loses a war its Prime Minister or President who own up and resign, not the soldiers and brigadiers who already bled on the war front.