Coaches Michael Nobbs and Ric Charlesworth castigate blue hockey turf

The new blue turf at the Riverbank Arena in London, which will stage the Olympic hockey competition, has become a talking point for various international teams that feel the pitch is not ideal to play on. India coach Michael Nobbs and his Australian counterpart Ric Charlesworth have both been critical of the surface that, they feel, is uneven and slower on one side besides being slippery.

India and Australia are currently competing in a four-nation test event in London and even though the two teams have had contrasting results so far, they have been unanimous and vocal about the poor nature of the pitch.

Charlesworth, who was the technical consultant of Indian hockey before he stepped down in 2008, has said that the pitch was bouncy and that it did not reward skillful players. Nobbs concurred with him.

Charlesworth was quite clear in his assessment when he said: “It (pitch) does not reward skill because sometimes you can get away through luck. It is bouncy, it has not been played on enough and it will be like this for the next few months.”

“Yes, I agree completely,” Nobbs told Mail Today from London. “They (Australia) have had six months of training on this surface and we have had just one game. It’s bouncier, slower and the pile helps the ball to be pushed one way (faster) while the other side is flat. It’s slippery as well and it’s pretty tough.”

Nobbs, who has had a long coaching career in Australia, said the Indians might take some time to adjust to the surface. “We will take some time to get used to this – a lot more than I first thought.” While Nobbs and Charlesworth have been unequivocal in their opinion on the turf, Australia have lost one of their key players – Graeme Begbie – to an injury he suffered after he slipped during his team’s 12-1 win against India in a practice game.

Nobbs further pointed out that there were some problems in the turf, besides some ball-handling errors by the Indian players that led to the team’s huge defeat to Australia in the practice match on Tuesday. India improved their performance in the first league match in which they reduced the margin of defeat, 0-3.

“The way we played in the second game (against Australia) is our normal style and the first game was to try and get used to the turf as we didn’t have any specific tactics,” Nobbs said. “We played a longer than normal match and they played their entire squad of 24 against us and we played 18 players. Six to seven goals were just ball-handling errors and the turf problems we faced.”

Nobbs, who took over as coach of the Indian team last year, was pleased that India has got an opportunity to compete against three of the best teams in the world, although he felt that there was still a long way to go for his wards.

“We need more of these games and, unfortunately, it comes with some pain along the way as we get better playing against them,” he said. “They have a good club structure and they play each other a lot, so they keep the standard against each other up. If they play the lower-ranked teams what happens is that they teach them how to play against them. The Indian team is improving but time is also our enemy.”

India lose to Britain

The Indian men’s team suffered its second straight defeat, losing 2-4 to hosts Great Britain in the test event for the London Olympics on Thursday. India had earlier lost 0-3 to world champions Australia on Wednesday. India will next play Germany on Saturday.