Only a year away from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro, Indian hockey once again finds itself in disarray while rival nations gradually settle on their best line-ups, formations and strategies.
The latest in the long list of sagas that have stunted the growth of hockey since the 1990s is the ousting of chief coach Paul van Ass just five months into his tenure after a spat with Hockey India (HI) president Narinder Batra. This was followed by the resignation of assistant coach Jude Felix leaving India with voids to re-fill.
HI then appointed High Performance Director Roelant Oltmans as the interim chief coach till the end of the Rio Olympics – which is far from ideal preparation for a country striving to recover its Olympic pride having finished last in London 2012 and missing out altogether in Beijing 2008.
You’ll have to dig deep into the annals of Indian hockey to revisit the time when stability was the order of the day. Moscow 1980 was the last time India won an Olympic medal, which was its eighth gold medal (still the most by any country). Since then, the country hasn’t finished in the top four.
In over three decades since Moscow, turbulence has become the norm for Indian hockey and there exists little hope that the sport will dig itself out of the quagmire it perennially finds itself in.
No accountability
That is because sports administrators in India remain virtually untouchable with no accountability whatsoever while players and coaches, who should form the backbone of any sport, are discarded at will.
KPS Gill’s 14-year stay (1994-2008) at the helm of the now-defunct Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) was a study in vindictive management. His tenure was marred by player-federation disputes (often personal rather than professional), interference in team selections and the sacking of 18 different coaches.
It was only when the International Hockey Federation (FIH) strong-armed the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) over the absence of mandatory elections at the IHF that the body came to be derecognised. It’s conceivable that Gill, 80, would still be running affairs had the FIH not stepped in. The age limit of office bearers for National Sport Federations might be 70 but it’s a mere guideline and not a mandate – as was evident when 82-year-old Vidya Stokes was elected president of HI in 2010.
The presidency then landed in the lap of former player Mariamma Koshy before finally making its way to Batra, who completed his term as the secretary general of HI before being elected unopposed as its president in 2014.
Unstable regime
If the end of the Gill era was a cause for celebration, the last five years in which Batra has been an office bearer have proven otherwise. India has seen the departure of four coaches in those five years.
The whole Van Ass saga arose from Batra crossing his boundaries. The hockey field is no place for an administrator to dictate terms, but the president came on to the pitch to express his displeasure right after India’s poor performance in the quarter-final of the World Hockey League (WHL) semi-finals in Belgium. Van Ass, as any right-minded coach would, did not approve of his actions and asked Batra to leave.
What followed was a mudslinging match riddled with allegations – Van Ass claiming he was verbally sacked in retribution, Batra claiming he resigned – eventually leading to the end of Van Ass’s tenure. Any advantage the team had earned, of preparing at length for the marquee event by qualifying two years in advance, has now been completely lost.
Terry Walsh, the man who guided India to gold at the Asiad and silver at the Champions Trophy, departed late last year following a contract dispute. Walsh’s demands? A greater say in squad selections and picking of support staff. But, like a number of coaches before him who sought changes to the system, he too headed out the exit door.
How can players deliver?
You have to sympathise with players in such a scenario. Is expecting a medal from them realistic when the sport’s governance is so shabby and indecisive? Changing coaches so frequently means adjusting and re-adjusting to different tactics and systems virtually every year. That requires an insane level of flexibility. The players were a happy unit under Walsh and appeared to be completely in sync with his vision before the Aussie abruptly left them. At least Oltmans’s is a face they are familiar with – and it isn’t the first time he has stepped in to cover the vacancy.
Van Ass was in the midst of working on new plans before his unceremonious exit. He had a working group of 33 players whom he had planned to rotate over a number of upcoming tournaments to find India’s best combination for Rio. He wanted to see new faces and evaluate all his players – which meant a bit of patience when it came to seeing results. Injuries had forced his hand too and the Indian side that irked president Batra wasn’t a full-strength team at all (which further makes you question whether people running the game actually understand it).
That said, it was clear in Belgium even with Van Ass in charge that India had a long way to go. The team struggled to dispatch relative minnows France and Malaysia while matches against tougher opponents Australia, Belgium and Great Britain resulted in heavy defeats: 2-6, 0-4 and 1-5 respectively.
A makeshift defence was well below-par and schoolboy errors, even from experienced players such as Birendra Lakra, were common occurrences. The backline is one of Oltmans’s immediate two headaches. The other is the alleged indiscipline of key player Gurbaj Singh who has been accused of “creating disharmony” within the team according to a detailed report submitted by former assistant coach Felix.
Excessive dependency on Sardar Singh is another problem plaguing India. Stronger opponents easily shackled him in Belgium and the team struggled to find an alternative mechanism. Penalty-corner conversions too left a lot to be desired though the coach was in the process of trying out a couple of new drag-flickers.
India’s road to Rio, which began before any other nation, has been so rocky that expectations have now hit rock bottom. The only silver lining for Oltmans’s and his team is that they cannot really do worse than they did in London in 2012.
So the only way is up. It always is for Indian hockey.
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The latest in the long list of sagas that have stunted the growth of hockey since the 1990s is the ousting of chief coach Paul van Ass just five months into his tenure after a spat with Hockey India (HI) president Narinder Batra. This was followed by the resignation of assistant coach Jude Felix leaving India with voids to re-fill.
HI then appointed High Performance Director Roelant Oltmans as the interim chief coach till the end of the Rio Olympics – which is far from ideal preparation for a country striving to recover its Olympic pride having finished last in London 2012 and missing out altogether in Beijing 2008.
You’ll have to dig deep into the annals of Indian hockey to revisit the time when stability was the order of the day. Moscow 1980 was the last time India won an Olympic medal, which was its eighth gold medal (still the most by any country). Since then, the country hasn’t finished in the top four.
In over three decades since Moscow, turbulence has become the norm for Indian hockey and there exists little hope that the sport will dig itself out of the quagmire it perennially finds itself in.
No accountability
That is because sports administrators in India remain virtually untouchable with no accountability whatsoever while players and coaches, who should form the backbone of any sport, are discarded at will.
KPS Gill’s 14-year stay (1994-2008) at the helm of the now-defunct Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) was a study in vindictive management. His tenure was marred by player-federation disputes (often personal rather than professional), interference in team selections and the sacking of 18 different coaches.
It was only when the International Hockey Federation (FIH) strong-armed the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) over the absence of mandatory elections at the IHF that the body came to be derecognised. It’s conceivable that Gill, 80, would still be running affairs had the FIH not stepped in. The age limit of office bearers for National Sport Federations might be 70 but it’s a mere guideline and not a mandate – as was evident when 82-year-old Vidya Stokes was elected president of HI in 2010.
The presidency then landed in the lap of former player Mariamma Koshy before finally making its way to Batra, who completed his term as the secretary general of HI before being elected unopposed as its president in 2014.
Unstable regime
If the end of the Gill era was a cause for celebration, the last five years in which Batra has been an office bearer have proven otherwise. India has seen the departure of four coaches in those five years.
The whole Van Ass saga arose from Batra crossing his boundaries. The hockey field is no place for an administrator to dictate terms, but the president came on to the pitch to express his displeasure right after India’s poor performance in the quarter-final of the World Hockey League (WHL) semi-finals in Belgium. Van Ass, as any right-minded coach would, did not approve of his actions and asked Batra to leave.
What followed was a mudslinging match riddled with allegations – Van Ass claiming he was verbally sacked in retribution, Batra claiming he resigned – eventually leading to the end of Van Ass’s tenure. Any advantage the team had earned, of preparing at length for the marquee event by qualifying two years in advance, has now been completely lost.
Terry Walsh, the man who guided India to gold at the Asiad and silver at the Champions Trophy, departed late last year following a contract dispute. Walsh’s demands? A greater say in squad selections and picking of support staff. But, like a number of coaches before him who sought changes to the system, he too headed out the exit door.
How can players deliver?
You have to sympathise with players in such a scenario. Is expecting a medal from them realistic when the sport’s governance is so shabby and indecisive? Changing coaches so frequently means adjusting and re-adjusting to different tactics and systems virtually every year. That requires an insane level of flexibility. The players were a happy unit under Walsh and appeared to be completely in sync with his vision before the Aussie abruptly left them. At least Oltmans’s is a face they are familiar with – and it isn’t the first time he has stepped in to cover the vacancy.
Van Ass was in the midst of working on new plans before his unceremonious exit. He had a working group of 33 players whom he had planned to rotate over a number of upcoming tournaments to find India’s best combination for Rio. He wanted to see new faces and evaluate all his players – which meant a bit of patience when it came to seeing results. Injuries had forced his hand too and the Indian side that irked president Batra wasn’t a full-strength team at all (which further makes you question whether people running the game actually understand it).
That said, it was clear in Belgium even with Van Ass in charge that India had a long way to go. The team struggled to dispatch relative minnows France and Malaysia while matches against tougher opponents Australia, Belgium and Great Britain resulted in heavy defeats: 2-6, 0-4 and 1-5 respectively.
A makeshift defence was well below-par and schoolboy errors, even from experienced players such as Birendra Lakra, were common occurrences. The backline is one of Oltmans’s immediate two headaches. The other is the alleged indiscipline of key player Gurbaj Singh who has been accused of “creating disharmony” within the team according to a detailed report submitted by former assistant coach Felix.
Excessive dependency on Sardar Singh is another problem plaguing India. Stronger opponents easily shackled him in Belgium and the team struggled to find an alternative mechanism. Penalty-corner conversions too left a lot to be desired though the coach was in the process of trying out a couple of new drag-flickers.
India’s road to Rio, which began before any other nation, has been so rocky that expectations have now hit rock bottom. The only silver lining for Oltmans’s and his team is that they cannot really do worse than they did in London in 2012.
So the only way is up. It always is for Indian hockey.
