Olympic Qualifiers – Santiago Chile – 1st March 2008 to 9th March 2008 – Brief Performance Report of Indian Hockey Team

Dear Reader

First and foremost, I owe an apology to the hockey loving people of our great country. We did try and give our best for the last 7 to 8 months to prepare this team. We were doing quite well and were all set to take on Great Britain & qualify for the Olympics. Gods wish was otherwise, however I wish to share the following facts with my fellow countrymen.

I along with the team members acknowledge and appreciate the kind words from our cricket legend Mr. Sachin Tendulkar – may his tribe grow and increase..thanks beta (i am 58 years old granny)..

Men may come and go – hockey will stay and its my earnest wish & desire to see this young team recover fast and hit the turf once again.

My observations & suggestions

1. Mr.Prabhjot Singh was adjusted as `Player of the Tournament`
2. Mr.VR Raghunath top scorer with 8 PC goals & field goals 2
3. Mr.Roshan Minz replaced injured Mr.Diwakar
4. Hospitality of the Indian High Commissioner Smt.Smitha & her staff were of high quality – they regularly fed our team with Rotis/puris & Indian cuisines – A letter of appreciation may be send to the High Commission, Santiago, Chile
5. Mr. M.P.Singh & Mr. ur goodself, Coaching Staff of the team tirelessly worked on & off the field in preparing Indian Cuisines for the entire team – I take this opportunity to salute these two gentlemen for taking additional responsibility with aplomb

6. All the members of the team worked with one single goal – winning the tournament & qualify for the Olympics – I acknowledge their good work
7. Tournament Director Mr.Willard P.Harris came to the Hotel late in the night on 7th March 2008 – i.e. around 11.30 PM to meet three of our players. Harris was on liquor and was accompanied by two women besides another tournament official. he gave letters reprimanding our players, Mr. Prabjodh Singh, Mr. Vikramkanth & Mr. Gubaz Singh & issued two letters of warning. Since receipt of letters these boys and the other players were totally demoralized. they were psyched out.

Role of Mr.Ric Charlesworth at Perth

Did not share any inputs about any of the teams, we played at Perth

Watched our training from the stands and arranged for the practice sessions on the ground – watering of the pitch

Attended the Medical care of Mr.Sardar Singh & Mr.SV Sunil

Ric was only psyching our players – repeatedly telling them that the Indian team could expect results only after four years – demoralizing the morale of the players.

With regard to the Great Britain team, he only mentioned the names of the special players in the team and their role but never advised us as to how we could negotiate/counter them on field of play.

Did not discuss nor showed any keenness to work or share his inputs with the Chief Coach Mr.Joaquim Carvalho nor the Coaching Staff during our training or match days.

When we lost the 2nd game to Western Australia 2-4, he ridiculed the team with a big laughter – deserted the team – but came back to us after we started winning the rest of the games – I did not appreciate his attitude

Showed some PC attack variations of the Australian Women’s team

He was not very happy & impressed with our good show against the Belgians at Chennai during the Belgium Test Series. He was accusing the Umpires including one Malaysian Umpire who officiated in all our five matches against Belgium.

He seems to be more concerned about signing the Contract with SAI and it appeared to me that he would not share anything till the official contract is signed by him.

The Drag Flick Software was developed by Mr.Prasanna with my inputs only (slogged for hours) ask my family members…– its user friendly with all parameters installed to analyze the game in short time

I wanted this software to be made available to all the PHL coaches but due to time constrains it could not be done

Cost of the software is at affordable prizes – when such software are used by all the small clubs all over the world, we have just started using with the National Team, that too with only senior team

I am prepared to travel any distance to popularize this with our coaches in India

Let us all join together to work in unity to achieve a common goal – revive hockey – to its glory

well my countrymen, the blood of slavery has not diluted in us….say to urself….ur the best in the country we can do it….thanks to Mr.Narayana Murthy….who put us all in the world map….remember….everyones destination today is India……just for bucks….not for pride….being not emotional …..anything from my end for the growth of the great game….`hockey`….or hoki…to others…as usual not expecting any monetary gains…..its my passion & life…..

M.Ramesh Parameswaran

Asst.Coach – Video Analyst – GK coach – Cook ?
Bangalore
15th March 2008