S. Thyagarajan

Chennai: When chaos reigns, there is no dearth of bad tidings. While a full blown crisis is threatening to envelop the non-functional administration in the shape of a player-coach friction, the sad part seems to centre on the drag-flicker and a trump card for the national team, Sandeep Singh.

Reports about his fitness and the equation he has with the chief coach, since the day he was relegated from captaincy and Rajpal Singh elevated to the same, have been, at best, conflicting.

It was suggested that a serious back injury would render Sandeep Singh unavailable for the Champions Challenge starting on December 6 at Salta (Argentina). The winner of this eight-nation qualifier will figure in next year’s Champions Trophy at Manchester.

There were alarming reports quoting the chief coach, Jose Brasa, that the principal penalty corner striker, who had a very successful tour of Canada recently with the national team, is unlikely to be fit for the Hero-Honda World Cup.

If that turns out to be true, then there cannot be any player more unlucky than Sandeep. It must be recalled that he missed the last edition too, sustaining a freak bullet injury while travelling to Delhi, days before the departure of the team for the World Cup at Monchengladbach. That India finished 11th in the 12 nation event is now part of our sordid hockey history.

Critical factor

The sequence since the return of the team from the seven Test campaign in Canada hints that the issue of captaincy is emerging a critical factor. Strangely, the national squad played the entire series without a nominated captain.

The idea of rotating leader, although some international teams do have such a system, raised eyebrows here. It is difficult to decipher whether the selection of Rajpal in preference to Sandeep Singh is linked anywhere to the problems faced by the coach now.

To say that the handling of administrative issues by the current apparatus controlling hockey is ineffective will be viewed as a mild assessment.

The Spanish trainer, handpicked by the chief coach, quit within months, apparently displeased with the attitude of the officials and players. Brasa has repeatedly expressed disappointment over the alleged indifference of SAI to provide equipment required and other matters. The appointment of a sports psychologist is also being delayed.

There is also discussion among coaches as to whether the eye injury to the country’s best goal-keeper, Baljit Singh, could have been averted. The team is definitely weak in the absence of these two experienced players.

Another factor that needs to be debated is the mode of training in long duration camps and the hectic tours undertaken without adequate breaks.

The team played a series of matches in Argentina, England, Belgium Spain, the Netherlands, Canada, and also in competitions at Chandigarh, Ipoh and Kuantan. The administration had no choice but to rotate 30-odd players without identifying new face for want of data. Whether player stress was addressed and to what extent remains a question mark.

The reported player-coach confrontation with only a few days left for departure to Madrid and then to Argentina for the Champions Challenge is something that Indian hockey does not need at this juncture.

The sad part of it all is that the current hockey administration, still to be elected, suffers from want of an authoritative personality to defuse the apparent crisis.

As the team plods on from one disaster to the other, the current imbroglio should not become an alibi if the team performs poorly.

But it does appear that the administration, the coach and the players are searching for one.