India’s goalkeeper may be invisible

V Narayan Swamy

NEW DELHI: Gone are the days when Indian hockey team mandatorily followed the tradition of an understudy to its goalkeeper in every tournament.

The squad size of 16 in multi-event sports is now considered so restrictive that the team may even consider playing crucial phases of the game without a goalkeeper.

An extreme thought, one may say, but this has been on the minds of the coaches for long. The circumstances will dictate such a move but with the Indians being adept at digging themselves into a hole, the concept may well be experimented with at the Commonwealth Games.

National coach Harendra Singh said he did not expect such a situation to arise often. “For one, we would have to be without the services of our regular goalkeeper Bharat Chetri. Even if that happens, owing to injury or card, we have worked on Vikram Pillay enough to be Chetri’s substitute. Having said that, there are bound to be situations when we may need Vikram to work as a field player. We may go in for a team of 11 field players in such a scenario.”

Harendra says the situation will have to warrant such a drastic move. “For example, if we are down by a few goals with just a few minutes left on the clock. At that time, we can be flexible enough to allow the substitute goalkeeper to join the attack. The prime objective then is to score goals, even if it means conceding one or two in the process.”

The Indian team attempted this variation in its practice matches against local sides in Pune and the coaches were convinced about the way the players went about the task. “We expect a similar ploy by our competitors too,” Harendra felt.

The other teams are cagey about the idea but the coach of the New Zealand women’s team, Mark Hager, has already gone on record saying that he may even go with 11 field players in such an eventuality as he hadn’t worked on preparing a field player to don the goalkeeper’s role.

England too embarked upon a similar exercise recently in attempt to find a substitute to James Fair. “Striker James Tindall donned the role of a goalkeeper and acquitted himself well,” chief coach Jason Lee said. “Not merely that, we also played a match against the United States with 11 field players.”

Rules say…

– The 2007-2008 rules were changed to permit a team either to have a goalkeeper on the field (with full protective equipment or only with protective headgear) or to play entirely with field players (in which case no player has goalkeeping privileges).

– A goalkeeper who wears protective equipment comprising at least headgear, leg guards and kickers must not take part in the match outside the 23 metres area they are defending, except when taking a penalty stroke.

– Player with goalkeeping privileges may remove the headgear and take part in the match anywhere on the field.

– Goalkeepers wearing full protective equipment and players with goalkeeping privileges are permitted to use arms, hands and any other part of their body to push the ball away.