Yet again another lost hockey generation

The Indian team is overly dependent on Sardar Singh.

Now that a relatively junior Indian cricket team has done well in an international tournament, all Indian hockey fans will wonder when they will see even a fraction of that kind of success in their favourite sport. The long-suffering Indian fans do not want too much; just a smidgeon of good news.

It also gives us a good opportunity to take stock of the situation that is Indian hockey, and maybe learn some lessons from the cricket success now that Hockey India has firmed up its complete control of hockey in India and its commercial arm, the Hockey India World League. Another positive development is that they now have a high-performance director in Roelant Oltmans, chief coach Michael Nobbs has had two years under his belt and the Indian men’s national team has an additional coach in Maharaj Kaushik.

Also on the horizon, very shortly, is another make or break situation, i.e., the Asia Cup, and its consequence – qualification for the World Cup. We’ve been through one ignominy of not making it to one Olympics; is not making it to a World Cup also around the corner!

In the lead up to the next big dance and a follow-up of the previous disaster, published below are comments taken from the hockey section of The Times of India, with appropriate side comments to put things in perspective.

Sardar Singh confident of making it to World Cup

“As a team, we lack consistency”, says dejected Sardar. These statements when taken together are an oxymoron, proving that a stellar player like our Indian hockey captain can also exhibit the same lack of consistency in his statements that he laments about in his team members. It behooves him to refrain from making such public statements.

Plus, are you really confident that you can beat Malaysia (not done since quite a few years), Pakistan, South Korea (nearly never) and even Japan, when you could not beat even a second-tier nation like Ireland? Even China will not make it easy.

Add to this inconsistency the defense being perennially leaky, the PC battery chronically misfiring, and comment after comment from players modern and old indicating the lack of basics of hockey in the team members, including trapping, passing, leaving gaps, poor marking, etc., and we seemingly have a recipe for disaster.

“India need to compete against top teams regularly”: Oltmans — So playing against the world’s best in the Hockey India World Hockey League is not enough; playing an Olympics and coming a miserable 12th is not sufficient experience. A preparatory European tour prior to these qualifiers was inadequate. Having extended camps, including incessant playing against each other, however monotonous (nauseatingly knowing each other’s moves and tactics) is not considered adequate preparation.

So how much is enough? Continuous tours without a break? How much expenditure for a poor country like ours is adequate to ensure a decent showing? A hundred million dollars? And when does the country ask for a return on their investment? Is 45 years long enough or do these guys need many more years still?

Viren Rasquinha optimistic about India qualifying for next World Cup

Most of us hold him in high regard – his going to MBA school and all, being a doctor’s son, trying to do something for hockey. This is a typically inane statement being made by hockey players knowing fully well the lack of truth in it. Or is it really journalistic manipulation by the writer of that piece?

But an effort can be made to pinpoint the reasons for all this.

Player selection – role of the selection committee

One common thread in all our recent disasters has been a player like Sandeep Singh. He represents a prototypical Indian hockey player (missing “the basics”, so said coach Brasa) that singularly destroys a team. Misguided, mis-trained, wrongly encouraged, wrongly selected. He does have a bullet P C shot on his day, which is rare. But he has been at the heart of most of our disastrous performances over the years.

It is not surprising that this happens because it is natural for those around him to play very tentatively, what with his extremely poor defensive skills. His penalty corner prowess is handily overtaken by the amount of goals leaked by him, as also his extremely poor positioning. It can be rightly conjectured that he would’ve probably made a very good cricket player in the realm of a hitter like Yuvraj Singh, but is too slow for the rigours of an average hockey match.

This story can be repeated again and again with many players on the “current favorites of the selection committee list”. Time and again allegations of regional bias have surfaced. And does one forget easily the antics of one Mr. Jyotikumaran, the epitome of influence peddling?

Most selection committees have similar “scandalous stories”, like the current, incomprehensible reselection of the above-named and Shivender Singh in spite of a memorably disastrous Olympic campaign. Now that India is on the brink of not making a World Cup tournament, does any one of the committees or its members have the honesty or the integrity to own up to their mistakes, let alone resign?

It is inconceivable that both current foreign coaches, honest individuals as most foreign coaches are (fond memories of Jose Brasa) bear responsibility for these mis-selections, when the rest of India’s hockey players are purposely kept away from their watchful eyes.

When is the last time you saw Mr. Oltmans or Mr. Nobbs take in a local Murgappa tournament or Mumbai Gold Cup or the matches of the Karnataka hockey league? Yet we have seen on national TV football coaches going far and wide, including transatlantic voyages, just to watch a couple of players in important club matches. Also, is it fair to blame the administrators of Hockey India, when the arbitrators of the selection process are the selection committee?

Selection criteria

There are very few standards established for criteria of selection. Deselection of players is done on the basis of inane statements made to collaborate journalists in the press, and particularly in some hockey websites that act as virtual mouthpieces of the administration.

When data indicates that a particular player is fastest with the ball on his stick, then to deselect him with a unverified statement that he is slow, does not pass the smell test and opens the selector up to the criticism that he is interested in propagating certain individuals from his state.

Also, verifiable and published online standards would lead to transparency, whereby the deselected would get concrete reasons for their deficiencies. Deficient players would be weeded out and “wrong horses” would not be persisted on for years, a la Sandeep and Gurbaj.

What is urgently needed are players well schooled in the basics, all-rounders who can pass well and keep control of the ball and are primarily good defenders and tacklers. It’s also important that if players are replaced by others, they should decidedly be better than those who they’re replacing.

For example, the current midfield (with the exception of Sardar Singh) would be no patch on the likes of Vinay, Mahadik, Ravipal, and Cheeyena, and an open competition among these players, rigorously supervised with rigid criteria, would be the only way to decide this.

The conceptual thinking blunder

Again, it is amazing that time and again, comments about the Indian team performance have always centred around a weak defense, leaking penalty corners, weak defensive midfield, allowing too many circle penetrations, soft goals, and yet for some inexplicable reason, a considered decision was made to strengthen the attacking part of the team and play an Australian style of play.

But traditionally the Australian back 7, be it in a club format or international, have never been weak and their midfielders have always been their towering strength, a situation completely different from traditional Indian hockey teams, both at club and international levels, particularly in the last 30 years. Hence the statements of Mr. Nobbs that he would like India to play like Australia and then switching that statement to playing like Germany.

It can be rightly said that the style best suited for India would be a blend of the total hockey style of Holland with some traditional Indian/Pakistani touches in counterattack. So the die was cast two years back when European style hockey with Indian touches was abandoned for a more open Australian style. This compounded all our weaknesses and set us back even further from the gains made during the Brasa era. This blunder falls squarely on the shoulders of Hockey India.

The fallacy of banking on youngsters:

Youngsters basically mean a buildup of the team with minimal to moderate expectations. This has to be explained to them and the nation. Again, due consideration should be given to quality and the need of the hour. To subject the player to the rigors of national team’s international competitions without previous exposure can lead to very disastrous consequences, as happened with India.

Judicious mixture of seniors with youngsters is always a better solution. The fight between two associations and the singular exclusion of all seniors, except for deficient but loyal ones, did not help matters.

Style of play:

1. Over dependence on Sardar Singh, making him do everything – a decidedly dangerous tactic. Not only is he putting in huge minutes which will shorten his career, but also, with no backup, in case he’s out of form, injured or indisposed, India is basically at half strength.

Another very serious problem is that with Sardar Singh in full attack mode, the weak Indian defense is subjected to a very dangerous counterattack when he and his men are stopped. It would be more beneficial for him to dump the ball from a deeper position and to develop inter-midfield play, rather than carry the ball and do “midfield to always forward” play.

2. Long, hard hits into the circle, hoping for a lucky deflection into goal – a primary reason for the lack of consistency of the Indian team. This style of play yields very little and harms team build up play.

Exposure to foreign lands and lessons learnt from cricketing success

Our cricketers are routinely playing in foreign leagues. Mr. Oltmans’ complaint can easily be settled if players with European experience were selected. We have a number of players with solid European experience, including Vinay and Cheeyena (Barcelona), Mahadik (Germany, Austria) and the Walmiki brothers (Germany). Also, it would help if they are played in their traditional positions – Yuvraj in midfield and Uthappa in centre half.

Cricket has a tremendous pool of players to select from, what with small streets and towns and villages all teeming with cricket players. Where there is plenty there is a chance for quality. There have been no visible plans afoot even in the traditional high interest states like Karnataka, Orissa and Punjab to revive school hockey and recreational hockey.

There are great fears that qualification for the World Cup is already lost. There is ample evidence to confirm that. There are many reasons for this predicament. It behooves all well-meaning Indian hockey supporters to pay attention to them so that they are not repeated. The time has come to concentrate on the youngsters.

God save Indian hockey.