Fresh start can help regain ground- Officials need to be responsible to ensure betterment of Indian hockey

Stickwork

Gurbux Singh

India’s Asian Games flop show may have happened three weeks earlier but the ripples are still being felt. How we lost a golden opportunity to have a direct berth in London 2012. I am aghast and pained to see the Rajpal Singhs failing to beat Malaysians in the semi-finals. It was madness against the Malaysians and we won’t forget this for a long time.

Frankly speaking, Indian hockey is in the pits right now. There is no planning and only thing we get to read about Indian hockey is politics. Harendra Singh speaks against Jose Brasa, the Spaniard blasts Hockey India and, recently, captain Rajpal Singh said Brasa kept him in the dark about team strategies.

Luckily for us, we have at least managed to win a bronze in Guangzhou and that may help us during the qualification matches for London 2012. A bronze will give us easier opponents, but still we will have to work hard to earn a berth. If things continue like the way they are now, we will never play in Olympics again. That’s for sure.

First and foremost, we have to find a new coach. We cannot continue with Brasa. We made a mistake by showing Ric Charlesworth the door. And if we get someone as good as him only then we should go for a foreign coach. We have to know that not every foreign coach is good.

That’s not true as we saw how badly Brasa bungled. We failed in the World Cup, conceded eight goals to Australia in the Commonwealth Games and then this loss in the Asian Games.

Here, in India, we have good coaches but then they indulge in politics, which, in the long run, effects the team’s performance.

To find an Indian coach, who does not indulge in politics, will be a difficult job. But I don’t think it’s impossible. Dhanraj Pillay, the other day, said he was interested in coaching the Indian team.

Good news! But let him first place himself as a candidate for the post. And then I want to how the Hockey India or Indian Hockey Federation react.

Talking about Pakistan, I was very impressed with their improvement. They failed in the World Cup and also in the Commonwealth Games. But Dutch coach Michel van den Heuvel, within five months, gave Pakistan the Asian Games gold and a direct berth to London Olympics. Did he come with a magic wand? I don’t think so.

What he did was simple. He prepared for the real games and pushed the players to give better results. He worked on their fitness and stamina and the result was there to see.

Whereas here in India Brasa did not prepare the team. The defence continued to wobble and penalty corner conversions remained poor. During the Asian Games though Sandeep Singh was in his elements vis-à-vis the drag flicks.

All said and done we have to start afresh if we want to regain the ground. The onus is on the officials who run the show. Will they able to make turnaround — only time will tell.