‘KPS Gill should get out of hockey’

Former hockey international Aslam Sher Khan (55) was a member of the Indian hockey team that won the World Cup in Kuala Lumpur in 1975 and the Indian team to the Munich Olympics in 1972. Later he joined politics and represented his hometown, Bhopal, in the Lok Sabha. He was made a Union minister in 1997. After a brief spell with the BJP, Mr Khan returned to the Congress. He has written an autobiography, To Hell with Hockey. Khan was made chairman of a five-member ad hoc committee set up by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to replace the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) after the Indian team failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics. He was subsequently removed as chairman leaving him a bitter man. He, however, continues to be a member of the committee. Khan comes from a family of hockey players. His father, the late Ahmed Sher Khan, represented India in the 1936 Berlin Olympics where India won the gold medal. He played with Indian hockey wizard Dhyan Chand and his brother Roop Singh. Aslam Sher Khan spoke to SRI KRISHNA on the state of Indian hockey.

What is the condition of Indian hockey after the IOA decided to take over from the IHF and set up a five-member ad hoc committee?

I think we are not going to get anything from the existing system. On 28 April this year when the IOA took over the affairs of the IHF whose president was Mr KPS Gill, they announced that the intention was to let hockey be run by former hockey players. A five-member committee was formed and I was made chairman. When this committee was set up there was a sense of relief among players that the standard of the game would improve. When I was asked how this was possible, I said two factors would help. We would work honestly which would help resolve 50 per cent of our problems. A specialised and professional approach to the game would enable us to regain our past glory. We sent a team to Malaysia for the Azlan Shah tournament. It was a mixed one comprising players from junior and senior levels and they raised our hopes as they reached the final even though they lost on the golden goal rule. After that our junior team did well to win the Junior Asian Cup in Hyderabad. When we won the tournament, politics started, which is normal in Indian hockey. Certain people did not like the credit for these wins coming to me. But, after all, it was I who was facing the media. They were asking why I was talking to the media. I had to talk to the media for they wanted to know what the state of the game in the country was and how selection was being done. You cannot shut the media out in today’s scenario. But people thought that I was taking the credit for the team’s performance. All kinds of things were going on behind my back and I was ultimately removed from the chairmanship of the ad hoc committee but asked to continue as member of the committee. Such unfortunate things have been going on in Indian hockey for years due to which there has been no progress in our game since no decisions can be taken. Look at the confusion over the issue of a coach, the MK Kaushik affair.

Why do you think the hockey standards in the country have fallen to such a low that for the first time we even failed to make it to the Olympic Games in Beijing?

We can divide India’s hockey of the past 80 years into several eras starting from the time of the rajas and maharajas who patronised the game and subsequently of how some people with vested interests took over and ruined the game. When the rajas and maharajahs were patrons of the game, they directly took care of everything and the standard of hockey was taken to the highest level. The game flourished during that period. We won Olympic gold medals in 1928, 1932 and 1936 and after World War II we won gold medals in 1948, 1952 and 1956. After losing in 1960 in Rome, we won the gold in 1964. After Partition, when many good players went to Pakistan, Indian hockey got the doyen of Indian industry JRD Tata as president of the IHF and India again started doing well winning the gold in 1952 and 1956 Olympics. In 1960 when India lost to Pakistan in Rome, Tata took responsibility for the defeat and resigned from the IHF. With his resignation from the IHF, the worst era of Indian hockey started. When Mr Ashwani Kumar, IG of Punjab Police became president of the IHF, he started doing all sorts of things to ensure that only Punjab boys benefited. The Indian team comprised mainly players from Punjab police and that started the decline of Indian hockey and the game was ruined. Mr Kumar ruled Indian hockey for 17 years and whatever was left of Indian hockey went down when people like MAM Ramaswamy and R Prasad ran the federation. Then, again another police officer from Punjab, Mr Gill, took over the IHF and ruined the game to such an extent that India for the first time failed to qualify for the Olympic Games in Beijing this year. These are the worst things that could have happened to Indian hockey and nobody has bothered to see what is going on in the administration of the game. We have had puppet associations with mostly police officers sitting as office-bearers of these associations. Nothing was happening at the ground level.

We have seen youngsters doing very well at the junior level but by the time they reach the senior level their performance appears to deteriorate whereas this is not the case in foreign teams in which many of their players have come up from the junior ranks.

The basic reason is that at the junior level there is not much politics. There is no pressure on selection or other such things. Young boys are selected and there is no pressure on their selection as also on the coaches. Of course, some team members may be overage but I think there is not much interference in team selection at the junior level. However, at the senior level too many people and vested interests are involved and there is a lot of heart-burning during team selection. There is no honest approach for selection of the senior team and 50 per cent of the problems is because of the dishonesty in the entire selection process, including the choice of coaches and which official will accompany the team on its foreign tour. If these kind of wrong practices are removed and there is honesty in team selection, the team might be a little better at the senior level. When the Indian team is selected, we have members from all over the country ~ north, south, east and west ~ and therefore there is need to create a team spirit among the players. A lot of motivation needs to be given to players for only then can they play for the country. I have seen it as a player and as an official.

What impact do you think the Ric Charlesworth controversy will have?

I think it will have a big impact on Indian hockey because he is a very good man and had come to set right our hockey. He had a lot of zeal and enthusiasm. So, naturally issues concerning his fees and contract needed to be honoured in a timely manner. Unfortunately, there is so much babudom in this country that to resolve these kind of problems you have to chase officials. That was not the job of Charlesworth as he had come here to coach our team. We would have greatly benefited from him. But people just don’t want to give credit to anyone and that is why our hockey standards have declined. It is indeed very sad for Charlesworth was a knowledgeable person and his going is a great loss. In fact, his decision to come and help improve our hockey standards was very commendable. The IOA not resolving the Charlesworth issue was another factor which has put our hockey back as he could have guided the team in the right direction and India could have become a top level side.

There are reports that Mr KPS Gill wants to take over the running of hockey through the IHF?

I think Mr Gill should not be allowed to return to the IHF since it was difficult to remove him. I don’t think it would be easy for him to return. But he is a stubborn person and he would definitely make every effort to come back and take charge of IHF. However, he doesn’t appear to be learning anything even though he has nothing to do with hockey. He is a police officer who became president of the IHF using his clout in this service. It is time he left the IHF.