High performance manager for hockey

NEW DELHI: In a move that screamed ‘damage control’ following India’s dismal show at the London Olympics, Hockey India (HI) on Wednesday announced its decision to appoint a ‘high performance’ manager for the senior teams (both men and women), a step clearly taken to clip the wings of chief coach Michael Nobbs.

HI explanation that the new post has been created to improve the national team’s performance at the highest level comes at a time when its secretary general Narender Batra admitted that he had no clue why India performed so poorly at the Olympics. All the coaches attached with the men’s and women’s teams will have to report to the high performance manager.

“We have received the coaches’ and support staff’s report on the Games. We have also received views of five of the 16 players so far. We are in the process of talking to the players and the coaching staff to identify the shortcomings,” Batra said.

Batra said the high performance manager, who would be a foreign appointee, would be in place by next month. The new official would have the final say in case there’s a difference of opinion with coaches on technical matters, he added.

Batra, however, ruled out any witch-hunt following the London debacle and also played down reported comments by a certain player who had blamed Nobbs for the poor performance. The HI secretary also said that both coach Nobbs and physio David John would continue in their posts. “Instead of blaming anybody, we are more interested in finding a solution. HI owns responsibility for letting the country down and hockey legend Dhyan Chand.”

Batra added that the HI would appoint a sports psychologist and said that the federation is looking at the formation of developmental teams as a step between the junior (under 21) and the senior teams. “Instead of 48 juniors and 48 seniors in the camps, we now propose to have 33 junior, 33 development players and 33 senior players.”

According to Batra, India would also be playing at least three series against top teams like Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and England from next year onwards. “Out of these three series, one will be against Pakistan,” he added.

The HI intends to continue hosting both senior and junior national championships for men and women every year. Batra gave enough indication that HI was ready to take the WSH players in its fold. “These players are free to approach us. We will happily listen to them.”