HI still searching for foreign coach

M.S. Unnikrishnan

The top guns of Hockey India, the national selectors, Government observers and coaches will assemble in Bhopal during the National Championship there from June 10 to 19, to select 48 probables for a coaching camp, to be held in Bangalore from July 1.

A Hockey India source said here today that the selectors will cast the net wide during the Nationals to pick the best available talent for the camp as a prelude to picking the Indian teams for various engagements in the coming months, including the Champions Trophy, slated to be held at the National Stadium in Delhi in December, and the Olympic qualifiers, also to be held in Delhi in February, 2012.

Though the name of the foreign coach has not yet been finalised, five Indian coaches, who will be associated with the National team, will be present in Bhopal to assess the talent on view. Though the Sports Ministry has accorded recognition to the rival Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), it has also allowed Hockey India to conduct the Nationals with a view that “hockey should not suffer”. The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has stated that it will deal only with Hockey India, which has put the Government in a dilemma.

As a consequence, institutional teams like Services, Railways and the Combined Universities would be among the 32 teams participating in the Nationals.

The source said the name of the foreign coach/consultant would be finalized in the “next ten days”. He said it was “too early, too premature” to name the possible candidate/candidates for the top job as various names were under consideration.

Former Indian captain, Olympian Pargat Singh, who is chairman of Hockey India’s Development Committee, which will decide on the foreign coach, said the committee will finalise a suitable name “as early as possible, may be in the next 10 to 15 days”.

“I am aware of the urgency of the situation, but we have to zero-in on the right candidates who would be able to work to uplift Indian hockey”, Pargat told The Tribune. He had lamented in Delhi last week that the laggard attitude of Hockey India was stalling the selection of a foreign coach.

Hockey India has requested the Ministry and Sports Authority of India to hold the National camp in Bangalore, taking into account the pleasant weather conditions in the southern metropolis, though the two major home assignments of the Indian team will be played at the National Stadium in Delhi.