New Indian Express: Men’s hockey World Cup: Far away from promised land

Swaroop Swaminathan

The legendary Australian coach Ric Charlesworth also sang paeans to describe how India’s mentality has changed.

Twelve. That’s the amount of big-ticket, standalone men’s International Hockey Federation (FIH) events to have taken place since January 1, 2014. How many of those has India played host to? Five. The run began when India staged the inaugural World League Final in New Delhi in 2014.

The Champions Trophy followed in December before the World League Final returned a year later. In the three years since, the country has also welcomed a Junior World Cup apart from another instalment of the World League Final. In a few days’ time, five will become six as Bhubaneswar gets ready for one of the biggest theatres in the sport — World Cup.

As one World Cup cycle is coming to a close, it feels as if India has missed out on capitalising from the largesse bestowed upon them by the FIH. Sure, the team has improved, there is more money in the game and the Men in Blue are now winning medals on the world stage. After winning no senior FIH medals for 33 years, they have won three in less than three years.

The legendary Australian coach Ric Charlesworth also sang paeans to describe how India’s mentality has changed.

“Three-four years ago, I was not so optimistic,” he had said recently. “Now, I see a revolutionary change in the way the players think about their game. You have made two Champions Trophy finals in the last two years and in the last one, India actually played better versus Australia (before losing in the shootout).”

Legitimate points but — there is always a but in this context — little else seems to have changed. There is still no well-defined hockey culture barring one or two traditional centres, academies haven’t cropped up, schools hockey is yet to catch the imagination, domestic competitions are in danger of becoming irrelevant, the Hockey India League (HIL), which did a lot of good to the Indian players, went kaput and is being redesigned in an unconventional avatar and fans continue to yearn for past glories, an indication that the recent medal count has done little to whet the appetite.

While former India captain V Baskaran accepts that Hockey India (HI) has done a lot of good by promoting hockey and bringing world-class talents to the country, he says they could have done more. “I wouldn’t say they have done nothing,” he says.

“They have done lots to promote the game. One should remember that before 2014, the country was starving for events. From that perspective, they have done lots. But there is no exposure, people living in Chennai or Kolkata or Mumbai haven’t seen Manpreet (Singh) in the flesh for over two years.

Most top players are locked in the camp for 6-7 months, they don’t play exhibition matches. Even when we were in camp, we still used to play matches in Pune and so on. When that’s the case, the fans lose out as the only times they see their heroes are on TV. I don’t think that’s enough if you want to grow a culture of hockey in the country.”

The former national team coach, a member of the 1975 Cup-winning team, has a point. India has not held a proper open practice session — a day where fans can come and see players train — in years. Open practice sessions, a very common trend in most Western countries, also ensure that fans get to mingle with their heroes post their workout. In India, if anything, there is a feeling that authorities prefer the exact opposite as evidenced when New Zealand came to Bengaluru to play a bilateral series.

The three-match Test series was held inside the SAI campus and not at the Karnataka State Hockey Association (KSHA). To make matters worse, the public, lifeblood for any sport to thrive, had no idea that a series was going on.

That fans are a disposable commodity was visible when this newspaper had spoken to one of the spectators who ‘accidentally’ dropped in to watch one of the Tests. “I am going to write a letter to the Prime Minister’s Office and will copy the sports minister in it,” Bhaskar Krishnaswamy, one of the 100 who were present, had said.

“International matches like these should be held in proper stadiums so that more people can have access to it.” Heck, a few of them who desperately wanted to watch the Asian Games-bound squad were locked out of the stadium and no valid reason was given by the groundskeepers.

This was further reinforced on Friday as India played a warm-up game against Olympic champs Argentina. It may have been a behind-closed-doors affair but fans weren’t even informed that such a match took place.

Baskaran’s other big gripe — lack of a proper system and an identity — also holds water. While all the top-notch sides in the world play to a dedicated programme, the validity of team India’s programme is always one bad result from dying a painful death. Because one bad result and the coach, and the programme by extension, is shown the pink slip.

Both Roelant Oltmans, who gave India its first FIH medal in more than three decades, and Sjoerd Marijne, who instituted a revolutionary player-driven approach in the hope that the players would start thinking for themselves on the field, were shown the door. As a result, the programme they brought in was condemned to the dustbin. In evolved teams like Australia, Belgium, Germany and Netherlands, the system is always king, with coaches acting as mediators at best. In a team like India’s, the players are the kings, with coaches playing the role of substitute teachers at best.

The state of affairs has had a compounding effect because HI is unmindful of the body count and planned programmes that get lost in translation. This is what selection committee chairman Harbinder Singh said immediately after Oltmans’ sacking. “(…) the sporadic success over the last two years is more incidental than deliberate.” From where does HI get this kind of hubris? Sporadic and incidental? For starters, Oltmans — with a bronze at the World League Final and silver in the Champions Trophy — was in the middle of orchestrating India’s most successful spell at the global level in more than 30 years. It was obvious Oltmans wasn’t expecting anything better when he spoke to the media after his sacking. “(…) one thing is for sure, you cannot change the system. If you are coming to India as a foreign coach, there is one thing for sure — before you finish your contract, you will be fired.”

At the beginning of 2014, when FIH began shovelling India with gifts in the form of elite events, Terry Walsh was at the helm. After the Australian was sacked, Paul van Ass was ushered through the door. By the end of 2015, Oltmans was given the reigns. In the middle of 2017, Marijne was given the job before he was asked to leave the premises after the Commonwealth Games this year.

Six events since the beginning of 2014 until the end of 2018. If India doesn’t make the semifinal in Bhubaneswar, it will soon become five coaches sacked. And that could be the only legacy once the caravan leaves the building.