Hockey’s present captaincy drama is a re-run of ’68 Olympic fiasco

As the Indian hockey team head into a major world competition carrying the hopes of a nation, they find themselves grappling with a serious leadership issue, with the squad torn between two candidates for the captain’s post.
The story may sound too familiar and topical, the dramatis personae in question, however, are Gurbux Singh and Prithipal Singh, who had set a precedent of sorts by jointly leading the team into the Mexico Olympics in 1968.

Defending champions India went on to lose the crown, failing to reach the final for the first time, and marking what would be a swift downfall from the top, punctuated by a solitary gold in the West-boycotted Moscow Olympics in 1980.

History, they say, repeats itself — more so, if you don’t learn from it. With the World Cup less than three weeks away, with Hockey India and head coach Jose Brasa at loggerheads over who should lead the side — Rajpal Singh or Prabhjot Singh — the sequence of events that unfolded 42 years ago could have thrown up, if not the ‘dos’, a few ‘don’ts’.

Blow to team spirit

“Too many cooks will spoil the broth. You cannot afford to have ambiguity over leadership in the team,” says P Krishnamurthy, who was in the squad for the 1968 Games. “If the controversies aren’t resolved soon, I don’t think the team can make even the semis,” he adds.

India, he points out, were a pre-eminent power in the sport when the two-captain team had to settle for bronze. The current squad doesn’t even figure in the top 10. Krishnamurthy recollects how the controversy affected the team’s campaign in Mexico City . “While there was nothing on the surface, we could very much feel the tension. I won’t say we lost just because of it, but that certainly was one of the reasons,” he says.

“As a player, you would like to go to the field with hockey, and not team politics, on your mind if you want to give your best. Frankly, I didn’t want to be a part of it. If Gurbux told me something, I would say ‘yes’, if Prithipal told me something else, I would nod to that too. But we could’ve done without it — I would have any day preferred to play under one captain, be it Prithipal or Gurbux.”

Gurbux’s defence

Speaking of the ongoing tussle, Gurbux is on the same page with his former team mate, but, predictably, begs to differ that at Mexico, India lost because of two skippers: “This is an unsavoury episode. I don’t know who to blame for it — Hockey India, the coach or the team. If you ask me, maybe, all of them. In my opinion, the coach has no business in telling who should be the captain. If Rajpal has been appointed, everybody should accept that. Hockey India could’ve handled the issue better. With a World Cup days away, it doesn’t augur well.”

Asked to draw parallels between 1968 and 2010, he says: “That was very different from what it is now. There were no camps in the team back then. Between 1964 to ’68, I had been captain, barring a few occasions. Prithipal had also led the team on several tours, when I was injured. Ahead of the Olympics, the federation named him the captain. Then, in what came as a shock for me one fine morning in Wellington near Ooty, I was told that I would be the captain too.

“What I had been told — though, I can’t tell you for sure and unfortunately Prithipal is no more — is that he said he wouldn’t play if he wasn’t leading. But this is all hearsay. Some also said that Prithipal was from Punjab and I was from Bengal , it was to appease the lobbies that there were joint captains. Anyway, what I can say for sure is that none of it had any impact on our performance,” he adds.

Both Gurbux and Krishnamurthy agree that it was a mere coincidence that the decline of hockey started with the bronze. “It’s not that the 1968 debacle started it all. Indian hockey’s downfall was because of many factors. Other teams were fast bridging the gap. Hockey became fast and more physical, which gave Europeans an edge,” says Krishnamurthy. Adds Gurbux: “When we talk of the decline of hockey, why do we forget the 1960 Rome Olympics, where we finished second? Let’s not forget we went on to win a World Cup after that (1975).

“It’s not that we didn’t want to win. Honestly, despite my gold medals in the Tokyo Olympics (1964) and the Asian Games two years, what still rankles me the most is that bronze.”