Hockey players never retire. This is reality, comedy and of course one of the inherent tragedies of Indian hockey.

Retirement is a decision – that would certainly impact an individual player’s career, life and time. It is therefore an important moment in his or her life, which often they miss, even some who ventured into it got their timing wrong, for some the decisions were questionable.

Not many are capable of taking decision, and the hockey player community in particular is no different. So what we observed over the years is players fading into oblivion without ever announcing a retirement. In a country where players make their international even at the age of 27 or 28, where even some played their first Olympics at the age of 35 and above, no player can guess, or think of finishing his hockey career on his own. They are most of the times clueless and helpless. The casualty therefore is the near non existence of retirement culture in the sphere of our national game. This is reality.

Substantial chunk of Indian players announced end of their career only to begin another round. Some were lucky in that and reaped benefit out of their speculative instincts. (In women’s hockey, if a player gives you her marriage invitation, it almost construes her informal announcement of retirement. Exceptions are few and far between). This is reality and comedy of Indian hockey.

The tragedy inevitably is the outlook of these players legal guardian, namely the Indian Hockey Federation, which never considered, concerned for and respected a process called Player Retirement. This is historical in habit – their lack of interest in records, concern and healthy relationship with players, who are dependent on their patronage, bears no repetition. At best a players’ post retirement contact with the IHF is with its lone clerk or manager who might have to give them a certificate to garner some government booty or a phone no. This is reality, comedy and tragedy of Indian hockey.

That’s why perhaps every former player worth his salt abuses the IHF, creating an indelible negative image to the sport. The IHF never had an eye to detect this bird flu, which affects not just the bearer but also the entire environ.

It is against this backdrop, one should look at Viren Rasquinha’s methodical announcement of retirement on 15th January at MIG Club, Bandra, Mumbai.

It feels nice the way he conducted himself since he hit the national side in the late 90s. It was only befitting his stature that he decided to announce retirement and also got the timing perfectly right, coinciding with him joining the prestigious ISB, Hyderabad.

The media took his retirement with the seriousness which it deserved, speak volumes how this midfielder managed his affairs. His retirement was a national affair, not just taken note of by the local media alone which is the case in almost all of his ilks. Even 10 days after the announcement, a leading national daily devoted a full page on him, which again vouchsafes for his symphony with the system.

Whether Viren announced his retirement early or late is now an academic exercise. For, he has taken it considering all the factors including the next phase, which is business management. Now we respect his decision.

He had made it amply clear he is moving out of international hockey with a sense of satisfaction, fulfillment and on a positive note. This I don’t think is for media consumption, but true also.

Take any player who came into reckoning after the 1980 Moscow Olympics. For about 15 years, roughly between 1982 and 1997, none of them got any gold medals in any tournaments of worth. Two generation of players had no inkling of what hockey gold is!

Viren has Junior World Cup and Asia Cup Gold in addition to Afro-Asian Games. The icing on the cake is Arjuna that he got on the eve of 2006 World Cup. A decent job in IOC is not a bad bargain either. Fortunate players of this genre should not have any qualms on opting to take the game — and thankfully so was he.

By conducting his affairs so magnanimously and also weaving seamlessly with otherwise insensitive media world, Viren has left his positive mark and thus helped improve the profile of hockey itself. I feel this is how GenNext hockey player can contribute to the game which is in dire need of all ingredients that make up brand hockey. This way in the end of Viren’s hockey career, he unknowingly positions himself as a strong promoter of the game as well.

Hockey needs enormous positivism — but it is enough negativity — for it to survive as an entity.

A fair assessment of Viren the hockey player is a must to complete this article.

Most of his Under-21 career feats goes out of our sight, cannot be scrutinized, as most of them were held outside India. Even the Junior World Cup we won at Hobart, hardly any matches were telecast or any of our journalists were present to critically observe and report.

It is fair to say that the likes of Viren in 1999-2002 made it to the senior sides on merit and amidst tight competition for each position.

In the senior side, his selection for the 2002 Asian Games was a bold step by Rajinder Senior. “I cannot believe myself” was what the youngster said amidst the Castrol celebrations on the eve of team announcement at the National Stadium in Delhi. For the one who found his name missing early that year for the KL Sr. World Cup, the Asiad came as a turning point. He has not looked back since then.

The problem arose in the late 2003, when we witnessed a surfeit of right-haves in the team. Vikram Pillay, Vinaya, Arjun Halappa, Sukhir Gill, Baljit Saini and all were there for one spot, the right-half. Herein germinated the great mutation that ultimately led to disorganized system of play format to crop up slowly and imperceptibly in 2004 and 2005. To accommodate every one of the above mentioned players, they were moved to hither and thither on the field. And one day a couple of years later, we saw Viren playing as deep defender at Chandigarh when Dilip Tirkey could not take up the field due to an injury! A mature player moving to play-making position is another thing. To say a player is an all rounder now, and it was because of contingencies arising out of surfeit of talented players is something different, and that is not acceptable – not workable in the long run. In this phase, a good prompter, who can pep up an attack even when one was not existing, and tackler Viren had to perforce become a terrific re-tackler as well. This has not done him any good.

My latest Hockey year Book 2007 features three pictures of Viren in continuum, taken out of PHL III 2007, graphically giving details of how he is a great tackler. As applaud, necessity and roles of forced right-half turned centre-half, centre-half turned withdrawn midfielder changed, the player’s caliber, who was our own Micheal Green, had undergone metamorphism. Coupled with virtually non-existing recovery time for injuries, a bit of shine in the Viren’s armoury was, yes, fading.

I don’t think players of Hobart Junior World Cup were systematically eased out. For the simple fact that the IHF can never do anything systematically!

If most of the 2001 heroes are not dotting national teams, it was just due to careless management of talent which were at the IHF’s disposal. As government schemes and institutions produced players in numbers, the IHF had the luxury of riches to taste, ignore and waste. Grooming, nurturing and caring are last virtues of our so-called system. The Hobart gems were the casualties of this system failure.

In an otherwise calm and composed Viren proved the steely nerve in him when he managed to score his point on his reckless dropping for the Doha number. His arguments cut the ice across the nation without any bad blood spilling on either parties.

One salient aspect of Viren, in retrospect, is that he manages to extract a profile for himself despite not being a prolific forward or a penalty corner expert, the two genres of players who normally hog the limelight. His sophistication and understanding of men and matters helped him to cut — and sustain — a distinct image for himself in the society.

The Week magazine considered him one of the young emerging heroes, Indian Express invited him for a debate; was asked by Today magazine to pen about a legendary former player, his views on World Cup, both football and cricket, counted — and he is perhaps the most quoted hockey player of his times! He had also penned a readable, signature columns.

Now, having bidding him an adieu, what do we expect of him in the future?

The Kiwis have their player Ramesh Patel to manage their hockey as CEO of their national federation, Spain had its own Juan Angel Calzado, Britain has one of its own player, and why not this management jewel in the making for our own.

We hope and pray players of calibre like Viren comes as CEO of our hockey affairs.

If the Middle Income Group Club where Rasquinha held his press conference could be so well managed, and that club is one of the 100s in the cricket setup, why not hockey deserves to be managed better and by experts?

Images: Hockey Year Book Photo Library

Captions: From top

1. Viren’s Patented diving tackle in a picture frame

2. Lending an ear to coach during a playtime break

3. Pains of being a hard tackler
4. In a rare show of joy, Marata Warrior’s captain Viren jumps on
Adrian D’Souza after scoring in a one-on-on shoot out in the latest PHL IV.

5. In the company of some of the Chake De! India girls during a promo event
6. Viren and his collegues (Dhanraj Pillay and Vikram Pillay) in the company of actor Jackie Shroff
7. Viren’s loyalty: He did not change job from IndianOil and always used Vampire brand of sticks
8. Captain Viren moments after crashing against Ghazanfar Ali at Chandigarh in the India-Pakistan Test Series