Captaincy issue still brewing

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: With just 19 days left for the opening of the World Cup hockey tournament here, the Indian team management and the players were still engaged in debating the captaincy issue on Tuesday.

Opposition to Rajpal Singh being named the captain by Hockey India (HI) was evident from the day the team was announced with the Chief Coach Jose Brasa opting for Prabhjot Singh.

Emergency meeting

On Tuesday, PTI reported that Brasa held an emergency meeting on Monday where players were asked to vote for their choice of captain and the verdict went in favour of Prabhjot.

HI Secretary-General Narinder Batra denied having received any communication from the team management regarding the players’ choice.

“There has been no further discussion on this issue and there is going to be no change in captaincy,” Batra said.

With the players having succeeded in their demands in getting money and having at least forced HI to consider a graded system of annual payments, there is a growing sense of uneasiness in the administration that from now on there would be a demand on almost everything.

Unprecedented approach

The approach of Brasa, as reported by PTI, in going for a vote on captaincy among the players, even after the announcement by the federation that Rajpal would be the captain, is unheard of in Indian sports.

With its own status in question, HI is obviously in an awkward position to either rein in its chief coach or to tell the players to get on with the training. It had to convey a firm ‘no’ recently to the proposal that the team travel to Chandigarh, just three days before the World Cup, for a charity programme to raise funds.

“They should cut this (captaincy) out and get on with the training and team development for the World Cup,” said Ajitpal Singh, from Jalandhar, on Tuesday as he heard about the continuing rift within the team.

Ajitpal had led the country to its solitary success in the World Cup, way back in 1975. And he should know what it takes to achieve success.