Junior India Hockey disaster: No place for violent undisciplined players

Violent undisciplined players do not belong in Indian Hockey

Indian Hockey is in ICU. The two major federations are fighting, former coaches have no qualms about criticizing each other and particularly Foreign(well meaning and impartial) coaches. Players both past and present have no love lost between them. Now a bigger problem has emerged which is going to take Indian hockey off the precipice, Poor and dangerous selection of members to represent the national teams. Drafting of the under-21 team has been atrocious that will set back the future of Indian Hockey.

Not only is the selection process poor but the selections are down right dangerous. India has the unique distinction of getting the maximum number of penalty cards, be it yellow, green or red in the annals of the game. India has had a whole team banned, then the punishment being reduced to 2 members being banned for life, for hitting a Japanese referee resulting in his hospitalization. One of them went on to become a national coach which maybe an example of being given a second chance for “doing his time” but is also a bad example of “reduced consequences for unthinkable violence”. Jugraj Singh, assistant coach of current Indian national team, was banned for 5 international games for inciting violence, recently. Tejbir Singh and Kanwalpreet Singh were banned for life for similar actions in the domestic scene, again followed by “being let off” though no plausible reasons were given for that action. Hitting umpires or fellow players in any sport is horrendous & does not belong in any sport.

What is disturbing is that now it is happening at the junior level. A similar incident happened with the current under-21 Indian team, playing in Malaysia, Talwinder Singh and Harpreet Singh were red carded for violence on opponent players, the latter also had the dubious distinction of taunting Malaysian spectators, earlier in the same game, an act not worthy of a guest in a host country. Both were also carded in earlier games confirming that they are undisciplined players prone to violence. Talwinder Singh and Harpreet Singh should never be selected for any national team ever again however skillful they maybe. India can be very badly hurt by their indiscipline in an inopportune moment in a future match just like with their indiscipline they made the current junior india team play short handed which led to their loss. India cannot take this chance.

What is shocking is that Harpreet Singh played for both junior andsenior national teams. Did the selectors not research him well, talk to his former coaches, colleagues, or did they feel he would change his ways? Or is the selection process a sham. News reports mention a selector being hauled up in front of Hockey India bosses for remarks against Hockey India officials & also doing a lot of extra hockey activities which could be labeled as influence mongering. K Arumugam has also talked about reports swirling in Indian camp at Johor, Malaysia about “Harpreet’s undue influence vis a vis bigwigs. (Hockey India officials or selectors)”.It is also well known that in certain parts of India there is a lot of “rough” play. Also it is well known that crimes are committed mostly by repeat offenders, if this argument is extended to these youngsters above, it is possible that they are well known “rough” players on the local circuit. Add to this the rampant age cheating in the same areas, this signifies a climate of indiscipline where respect for authority ie referees, & fellow players/opponents is at a premium.

Drafting the right players, skilled, physically and psychologically fit, is of vital importance for any team. Unfortunately in India the selectors are arbitrators of who makes the team and not so much the coach. Indian players are put in long expensive camps costing crores of rupees at tax payer expense, in a country where many people cannot afford a square meal. This long camp phenomenon is not done anywhere else in the world. In fact the under-21 players of the current New Zealand team as also the previous team to visit Malaysia, all contributed $ 2000, out of their own pockets to make it there. I am sure that created a tremendous incentive to be disciplined & “perform “in contradistinction to the primadonnas of the Indian

These selectors come on a 2-3 day “try out” to the camp to select a “team”. What is not known is how much research is done by them to make sure a player has the above criteria to make it to the national team. In fact the last Indian team to Australia was selected in the absence of Mr John the physical trainer. The psychological makeup is also obviously not known to them. Each of these selectors have played for teams and are well aware of player disagreements with each other and the coach, both past and present ( Rajpal and Sardara in recent memory). So is it not imperative for them to not saddle the coach with “trouble players” like the ones mentioned above? What could coach Mukesh Kumar do?

This team had the ignominy of blowing a 4-0 half time lead against Korea, a feat that no team in the world has ever done: making the coach give a lame excuse that the team was “unprepared”—this after a 45 day camp. Really, Coach Mukesh, really? And then your players are indisciplined leading to cards at crucial stages that hurt the team, and this! Coach Mukesh could not have been predicted before and pointed to the selectors or was this a new behavior, coach?.There are better players playing on the best club teams in the country that were not selected. Obviously midfield selection was very poor and not proper emphasis was put on who or what is a good midfielder. Defensive one-on-one ability was not looked into. Reports state that a majority of players were from a certain region, as if other areas do not produce good hockey players.

Col. Balbir Singh, BP Govinda Syed Ali, and Gundeep Kumar are the selectors responsible for this debacle and they along with Mukesh Kumar and Hockey India need to be held accountable. Will they admit their deficiencies or do we sweep all this under the rug & appear “shocked” when India does not make it for a future Olympics or World Cup, when the seeds for that disaster were planted in November 2011?