Ash To Ashes, Dust To Dust , To “ HELL ” With Indian Hockey, Those Start Of Black Day's Of Indian Hockey Was A Must




Pic :: The Black days Of Indian Hockey And It's start 

Ash To Ashes, Dust To Dust , To “ HELL ” With Indian Hockey, That Was  A Must

This is not a rhyme or something which could be taken away or which could be attached to Indian Hockey.

This again is a fact which cannot be taken away from the realities of Indian Hockey  and this again is something which if given a proper thought would make anybody to feel whether is it such which constitutes Indian hockey.

Many say that Indian Hockey completely went in to the shell and got turned to dust or the ash after the debacle of 1976 and the Olympics that were held at Montreal. True it might be to many an extent or to some extent but the Indian Hockey actually got burnt and the smokes were rising after the defeat against Pakistan in the finals after Rome, but we have a habit of everytime closing our eye and  warding off the eventualities, saying that IT IS A OFFLINE INCIDENT, ONE OF THOSE WHICH HAPPENS.

Every country thereafter the Rome Olympics in 1960 started changing and bringing about many new ideas and the game strategy in Hockey . Hockey started changing hands and it’s face and that was evident in the Mexico Olympics when in the Group stage itself we lost to New Zealand by 1-2. We again split the points against East Germany. However we qualified topping the Group , not because we actually topped that but because we got the advantage of topping that.

In the games against Japan in 1968 Olympics, Japan played a resolute game to hold us for 0-0 till the 55th minute lest in the 56th they conceded a stroke which they protested vehemently and thereafter they left the field .That gave us a PENALTY AWARD of FIVE GOALS, as according to the rules that were set for the Rome Olympics, a team leaving the field without completing the league engagement would be penalized by five goals. Those five goals helped us to qualify from the group as a group topper and we were lucky that we topped the group as a Group leader to meet Australia.

The Australian and it’s Hockey was developed in the manner of playing the games according to the root of the Asian style where India and Pakistan were simply unbelievable when it came to stickwork and the flavor of the Asian style of the game, but when it came to counter the Australians  for their body fitness and counters would adopt the European style. That is how their Hockey was developed and that is how slowly they started improving on the games.

Far across at Europe , the wrist play and the wrist work did not find that kind of a game for them to adopt to the style of the Asians. There were few in Europe who would indulge in wrist and the magical dribble and carry style of the game that the Asian played but most of them were not that good in indulging themselves, to  that kind of a game to play. They started following the long perfect passes and they improvised and brought about many a change in the game when it came to the penalties. The variation by them to keep on changing the their hits while taking the penalties came fully to the fore. Europe saw many specialist emerging for the penalty corners and some of them Otolowski of Poland, Paul Litjen of Holland, Ties Kruize of Holland, Juan Amat and Fabregas of Spain,  Ian Bell and Hammond of Australia , Michael Krause and Uli Vos of West Germany, Seane Kerley of Great Britain , Bouwman of Holland,   were some and many of these and  of them who made such  an kind of impact that was and that is unbelievable to describe. The Dutch one by one kept on changing the variations when it came to taking these penalties and we the Indian were  simple  , and simply blanked on that old approach of taking the penalty corners. It was here that the Hockey of Asia surely and steadily started going away to the fold of the Europeans with Australia steadily challenging them.

Pakistan in between 1978 to 1984 also changed their formation  but not by clicking to the other formation. They kept on playing the 5-3-2-1 kind of a formation to keep on playing the game in that manner but their scoring pattern was changed in the ratio of 1:1:1 which means that every three goals scored by the Pakistanis, one would come from the penalty corners, one would come from the midfielders, and one would come from the forwards. If the penalty corners failed to come from the midfielders then the one’s playing in the deep defense would have to make the amends or the forwards would have to make the amends and likewise and vice versa in terms of the rotation in the game.

Pakistan’s performance as I had described earlier in my previous write up were simply breathtaking and the kind of the success that they enjoyed between 1978 to 1984 was simply unbelievable. The modernity of Hockey was mixed by them with the traditional Asian style of Hockey and the manner in which their forward line moved either from the flanks in tandem with the midfielders was something to be seen and believed. Over it there were some who ,  when needed would dribble just to keep a complete control of the ball, and then immediately pass it at the first time for the others to take the advantage within the team to move up, opening the path of the goal in front of the opponent’s goal and score. That made Pakistan a team who and which would score at last five goals in the complete match on an average.

Pakistan from 1978 to 1984 on many occasion swept their opponent off their feet by scoring at an outstanding and unbelievable manner. In the Esanda Cup Final in 1979 they scored at an average of five goals per match. That was simply unbelievable.

Here at India the over excessive dribbling, the slow movement while attacking, and totally failing to convert the penalty corners into goals made the life a hell at India.

MERCURIAL MOVEMENT BY PAKISTAN TEAM AT ESANDA WORLD CUP :: 1979

 Here I would lay an example. This is a photo or a picture about how Pakistan manintained it’s traditional manner of playing the Asian Trade of hockey while bringing in a change in their flow and the movement in the games.



Pic :: Mercurial Movement Of Pakistan

Here in the picture, I’m describing a goal bound move which Pakistan employed against India in the New Delhi 1982 Asian games in which they beat India by 7-1. It is here that the Pakistan Centre Half marked as CH initiates a move from the centre line to the Indian goal.  His shot just over the Centre Forward marked as CF is placed at the extreme end of the Indian “D: .The Right Out marked as RO makes a dazzling and a speedy run which again is a run which ought to be believed as that actually is the burst when it comes to that. .While doing that the Centre Half makes a dummy run to the Indian goal which is again marked as CH near the Indian goal. The Centre Forward knowing that an Indian defender would be there at the near edge of the “D” to check this moving right out makes a dummy run just near to the centre half at the striking circle at the “D”. Their right in also moves up a little behind in an calculative manner and stands near the place marked as OB. When the ball is passed it is passed to either the Right In , from the edge marked as OB or to the Centre Forward marked as CF 2 as the centre forward is at an angle of 45 degree while taking his position either at the right or on the left on the Indian goal. The ball when passed by the Right out of Pakistan at the place marked as OB is received either by the Centre Forward or by the Centre Half of Pakistan who watching the Indians standing in and well inside the “D”, in a inverse curved manner as I have shown here pass the ball to the other flanks well within the striking circle ,  It is well planned move by the Left In or the Left out as marked by LI and LO about how they from their position exchange the ball with the OB as I have marked LI 7 and interchange their position to completely fox the Indian defenders with such a tremendous speed within the circle to exchange the ball and create those openings at the front of the Indian goal.

The number of players of Pakistan at and in front of the Indian goal is as many as six while the Indian defenders are as many as five including the goalkeeper if the Indian halves are there in the striking circle to stop the Pakistani’s.  The ratio is 7:5 and that is the reason why Pakistan always had beaten India by a minimum of two goals and a maximum of as many in their games against India from 1978 to 1984. On as many as SEVEN occasion from 1978 to 1982 Pakistan beat India over a margin of SIX clear goals and on TWO occasion they pumped SEVEN goals against India. Same for West Germany who beat India by 7-0 in the 1978 World Cup Hockey match at Buenos Aires and from there West Germany on many an occasion beat India by a clear margin of a FIVE goals difference. The reason was we were playing with all the LAID BACK strategy and formation and the styles which were OUTDATED and OUTLANDISH in terms of the requirement of the game and the play to play modern hockey .

This is the reason why Pakistan could score a 12-1 victory against New Zealand in the 1981 World Cup at Bombay, a 5-2 victory against Holland in the 1979 Esanda World Cup at Australia, a 3-1 victory against West Germany at the Bombay World Cup, a 7-1 victory against India in the New Delhi Asian Games in 1982.,  a 3-2 victory against Holland in the finals of the 1978 World Cup finals where after trailing by 0-2 in the breather they came back to score THREE, one each of Akhtar Rasool, Ishlauddin and Ehsanullah to win the 1978 World Cup at Buenos Aires.

The Pakistani would move up with such a speed that it would be very hard for anybody to chase them. They practiced very hard especially their forwards line to move up in such a terrific speed and rattle their opponent at the “D” to score. The others would find it very hard to manage to run with that a kind of speed to stop them. This is what Pakistan did to it’s ravaging and rampaging forwards and that is how they kept on rattling their opponents in the internationals.

This speed would come in as a handy while negating the penalty corners taken by their opponent against them. Infact the man who DISCOVERED the art of negating the opponent while taking the penalty corners against them was none other than Ishlauddin Siddiqui .  He would while the penalty corners conceded against Pakistan , run in such a speed from the goal line to the one who was taking that hit at the Pakistani goal, and snatch away the ball from them was a treat to watch. It was like an EAGLE soaring, and all of a sudden inclining to it’s prey and snatching the prey with it’s claw to take it away for it’s meal. Ishlauddin’s this effort forced the Europeans to invent many variation in their penalty corner’s execution. Back here in India there was nothing new that was being brought in for anything new that we could see in India doing that We kept on playing with those very old strategy and movement in terms of being no fluid at all in our planning for move that the opponent would read our  moves so very easily and would cut our moved to neutrality and futility.

The Laidback Indian Moves



Pic :: The Laidback Indian Moves

Here in the picture one could visualize the laidback Indian moves . It is very obvious the way the Indians would moves and they would move mostly through the left flank or the right flank. When Zafar Iqbal and Mohammed Shahid would move from the left flank as evident they would square pass the ball to their moving partners from the other and that is reflected by the words OB1 or OB 2 . From the right flan if at all they moved they would come a cross as indicated by OB2 These crosses would come to the opponent goal which easily would be cut off.

While moving from the Left Zafar Iqbal while inside the “D” would try to earn the penalty corners instead of cutting through with his speed marked and mixed with dribbling's, anile or unlike the  the Pakistani where Samiullah would run in that manner and dribble past to open the goal. Only Mohammed Shahid would do that with his devastating run and with his so articulated dribbling, so very attractive to watch but while doing do his other helping partners would not be able to match up to his speed to enter the “D” along and on a parallel line with Shahid, as a result for most of the time Shahid had to again back pass the ball or had to square pass the ball or had to himself open up. At times his dribbling's would be such that it would be a MIGIC to watch him doing that but it would end without anything concrete coming to India as the number of the Pakistani defender would outdo him. Yet Shahid scored so many a SPECTACLES and so many a SPECTACULAR goals all alone doing that it would find no words to explain them.

The speed at which Shahid moved and the manner he would control the ball, dribble and make the space for him to further move up defies the logic of Hockey and makes the room for many improvisation watching which the Pakistani’s the Europeans and the Australians would invent a number of game plans to stop this rampaging forwards, but here in India be it the coaches from either Punjab or the South like M.P.Ganesh or anybody we still would totally depend on the old traditional manner of playing this game on the turf which actually required many a variations and many ploys to be a topper. Pakistan and the Europeans kept on employing and restrategising their game on the turf by bringing in new variations and INDIA-DID-NOT and that is where our Hockey started sliding down and it never rose up to any height at any moment.

The Indian game and the Indian moves were well read by all over the World between 1968 to 1972 and it was discovered by everybody that INDIA WAS NOT PLAYING ANY THING DIFFERNT IN HOCKEY. Their game was all LAID BACK as the Indian coaches simply believed that the results obtained from 1928 to 1956 were the BEST and that is the one which could fetch India the desired results, but that was NOT to be. In fact when Mr Wein Horst one of the BEST Hockey coach of the world then, when he had come to India in 1969 to watch that Invitational Hockey tournament that was held at India had asserted that fact and he had made a FERVENT request to the I.H.F telling that he wanted to coach the Indian team in an manner that if the team does not wins any tournament under him especially the World Cup that was to be hrld then, he WOULD NOT charge any penny for his services. For that was NOT to be. The I.H.F instead recruited a Sardarji, Mr Kartar Singh as the Coach of the Indian team for the 1970 Asiad and I guess Mr Balbir Singh as the Coach for the 1971 world Cup. That feeling that the Punjabis or the Sardarji's were the BEST in the business of Hockey and it's coaching till then had NOT gone off the mind of the bosses of the I.H.F and Mr Ashwini Kumar. 

ABSOLUTELY LAID-BACK WERE THE INDIAN HOCKEY COACHES 

If Mohammed Shahid was a Pakistani , Pakistan with him till 1990 would have SWEPT all the Hockey titles that they would have participated. They had Hasan Sardar who actually  needed ONE of the kind of Mohammed Shahid and if India had Hasan Sardar,  with Mohammed Shahid at his side, or by his side at the Left, we would have won all the Hockey titles from 1978 to 1990 for Shahid needed one like Hasan Sardar but alas, neither they could find out ONE like Mohammed Shahid nor we could get ONE Hasan Sardar. These two were the TWO eye in the FORWARD lines of the World Hockey between 1978 to 1990 and STRANGE each missed the other.

Pakistan in the mid end of the 80’s got one SHAHBAZ AHMED,  ( Oh, what a PLAYER was he- a MAGIC )  however we could not get ONE of that quality after Merwyn Fernandes was banned from 1985 to 1988 from the international hockey and THAT WAS THE REASON MOHAMMED SHAHID COULD NOT SCORE 120/100 IN HIS HOCKEY CAREER AND HASAN SARDAR COULD ATLEAST SCORE 90/100 in his Hockey career. In a country which has a population of 130 crores it is so intriguing that we could not produce a MOHAMMED NISSAR, we could not produce a  CHUNI GOSWAMI or a P.K.Banerjee, we could not produce someone like Roop Singh, forget Dhyanchand or we could not produce a GAMA PEHALWAN any any moment at all. Our faulty manner of selection and elections have made us a LAUGHING STOCK  in the eye of the world though we boast that we are something very GREAT and UNIQUE……. We are NONSENSE and “ BALLS ”  ( BEFORE AND AFTERWARDS LAYING LOW  & STRANDED ) as the BRITISHERS would address India when they ruled here. The teams in India for whatever team game that involves a team effort to play those games are NEVER and had been NEVER selected on the basis of merit. It is selected on the basis of groupism, partialism,  casteism , and many other factors as such we have never been able to do anything spectacular in the arenas of games and sports. The cricket team and it’s selection form 1996 till this moment is the solid example of how the money power and the lure of sharing the booty and the money has completely put forward all very LOW – STANDRAD –OF- INEFFECTIVE cricketers who adopt to using all low and  dirty means to win the series here at India. They are completely exposed while playing abroad. The same was in Hockey where the LURE of a JOB or an employment was the cause that the factionalism and favouritism made the players look very ineffective and ordinary to represent India in the internationals.

For example in Hockey in the 1984 Olympics, it was one of the best forward line in Zafar Iqbal, Mohammed Shahid, Hardeep Singh who was actually a moving player from the deep of the Indian territory to the striking circle and Merwyn Fernandes with Charanjit Kumar, and the last named here, was  a TOTAL MISFIT in that scheme of hockey where India converted itself to 4-4-2 kind of a playing system. Charanjit Kumar was a MISFIT,  and his father was a HIGH-SHOT in the Punjab Police and that kept him in the squad. His runs were poor, his game was very old and laid back- the TYPICAL kind of a game that the Sardarji’s and the Punjabi’s would play in the old era of the fifties and the sixties, and all he would do is to run with the ball to the edge of the “D” at the right end of the “D” somehow send a cross. All his crosses would be easily intercepted by the opponent players and the defenders. He was a TOTAL-MISFIT, yet he was kept playing for India at the expense of Jalaluddin of Indian Airlines.

After India made an exit at the Olympics at Los Angeles against playing a 0-0 draw against West Germany , the Indian coach Balkishen Singh  brought in Jalaluddin in place of Charanjit Kumar. In the next two games India defeated their opponent by 5-1 and then defeated Holland  by 5-2 to win the FIFTH spot in that Olympics. It was Jalal who made the HELLUVA difference and the manner that India beat Holland by 5-2, it was his game, his play where he could understand as to how to penetrate the “D” from the edge and instead of crossing the ball over, he always would play ONE-TWO with Merwyn and get the ball to dribble and maouvre the opponent in the “D” to give it either to Hardeep or Shahid or to Merwyn again , keeping the opponent at tenterhook for the Indians to score. It was Jalal who kept on creating and making those runs and moves and interchanging his position and the ball with Merwyn, Shahid and Hardeep he completely FOXED the WORLD over and the scribes to write- WHY THIS MAN WAS NOT PLAYED EARLIER. The reason is JALAL’s father MIGHT HAVE SOLD SAMOSAS ON THE STREET OF BHOPAL.

Extremely Strange :: The Indian Mannerism And Way

STRANGE- strange are the ways of the Indians. When a TV channel IDIOT approaches for a job in any of the TV channel,  he, or she,  present’s his Father’s narration and description in his BIO-DATA to get that job. That job is given to him. We have seen many a TV personality getting a job in the channels because their Father are either the Member Of Parliament, or the General Manager of PRESS-TRUST-OF-INDIA , or the CHIEF ADVISER in the Ministry Of Communication to Mrs Indira Gandhi, but when it comes to Indian Hockey it is the ………..“ SIN ” of the Father’s to do a job of selling  the ANDA ie the EGGS or maybe the SAMOSAS on the street of Bhopal. The TV presenters  have shown many ,  many and many a show or a show of the FOOD STREET and it’s importance on the channels but the I.H.F and it’s BRILLIANT HEADS reject a PLAYER if he is a SON of a SAMOSA or a ANDA ie an EGG seller in India. That is how the BRAIN works at India when it comes to anything though we BOAST- “ HUM- EK-HAIN, HAMARA-EKTA-MUTTHI-MAI-BUND-HAI ” which means we are ONE and our UNITY is as GOOD as the SYMBOL of the entire FINGERS clasped togetjher into ONE . ALL-BULLSHIT-I-SAY.

May I add one more or a few more lines. If I had been the CHIEF-COACH of that Indian Hockey team , after our DEFEAT against Australia where we lost by 2-4 to them in the group encounter, I would have immediately replaced Romeo James who was protecting the Indian goals by Neel Kamal Singh, and against Australia I would have immediately brought in Jalaluddin and for that tie against Germany I would have NOT PLAYED Zafar Iqbal right from the start. Infact I would have pushed Marcellus Gomes at the Left to assist Shahid and would have put Ravinderpal Singh along with Joaquim Carvalho and Somaya to take the charge of the midfield with Carvalho playing at the back of Gomes. That would have made a HELLUVA difference to the fortune of India and we would have tampered the confidence of Germany  with Carvalho, Gomes and Shahid placed in ONE DIRECT STRIGHT LINE HALVES  the ploy that Pakistan adopted against Germany in the finals, to play and move along with each other, but then when you  have a Coach, a Sardarji or a Punjabi, they NEVER in their mind get out of the kind of the game the Punjabis or the Sardarji’s are used to playing . That does not goes well with the boy’s coming out of Bomaby or with  a Uttar Pradesh Sports Hostel  in terms of guy's from where Mohammed Shahid, Ravinderpal Singh and in the due course Mohammed naim, Mohinderpal Singh, Sujeet Kumar  to name a few had come to Indian Hockey ,  to name a few came out of that Indian Olympic Hockey team  of 1984 and thereafter was made of.. That really made the difference. A Charanjit Kumar would not have found a place in 1000 different life at Pakistan or in any country that exists in the world, but here in India he was a OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALLIST in 1980 and was playing for India at the expense of Jalaluddin Rizvi at Los Angeles with Ravinderpal Singh warming the bench .How did you expect India to ever play in the finals. I DID NOT WHEN I SAW THIS TEAM IN FRONT OF MY EYE IN THE OLYMPICS OF 1984 AT LOS ANGELES

That Indian Hockey team was WORTH in GOLD but came back empty handed. It was all because of the WRONG method and strategy deployed after their 2-4 loss to Australia and for the fact that Jalaluddin was totally rejected as a player when he was the NEED of the hour. This is what has been bugging the Indian team everytime and all the time. The LOSS has been the Indian Hockey. Pakistan in 1984 won the Olympic GOLD. That team was NOTHING to INDIA, nothing as compared. Yet it won the GOLD because that team was carrying Ishlauddin as it’s ADVISER and his beautiful piece of advice from time to time and his piece of advice to play Kalimullah at the LEFT to start with at the inside position and then switch him off to the RIGHT at the extreme outside completely confused the Germans wand and  it was he who scored that winning goal. Not that the Pakistani were something special, they were HIGHLY and very precisely,  “ IMAGINATIVE ” .That was the difference between that Pakistani Coach and the Indian coach. The 4-4-2 formation of India was very good but in that formation Vineet Kumar was a misfit. His speed was very LOW and SLOW and in that formation especially the new kind  of a turf that was laid at the Hockey venue, the speed of the deep defenders' to fall back to defend, or to move up initiating the attack, holds a great importance and  many a times caught India on the wrong foot, as speed was not at there to do and follow,  and Vineet Kumar was very slow of his feet. That also added to the woes of the Indians in their game against Spain where India leading by 2-0 at the half time somehow scraped through by 4-3. The strategy of the Indian hockey was always found wanting and the ploys always were found in limitations against their fast and nippy opponents. That team had a good line up of the halves- all very YOUNG, very FIT and always raring but the sluggishness of the deep defender where Vineet Kumar was the offender and the OUTLANDISH game of Charanjit Kumar did the DEATH and the Indian team atlast was forced to reconcile to it’s fate.

I would like to again continue with this article by adding either some more lines or by bringing out a new chapter on Indian Hockey being continued on the same lines but for the day I conclude ie I pen down hereitself ……..

Well , that is it and That sums it all.

Regards and Thanks

Pics



Shyamal Bhattacharjee 

Mr Shyamal Bhattacharjee, the author was born at West Chirimiri Colliery at District Surguja, Chattisgarh on July 6th 1959 He received his early education at Carmel Convent School Bishrampur and later at Christ Church Boys' Higher Secondary School at Jabalpur. He later joined Hislop College at Nagpur and completed his graduation in Science and he also added a degree in    B A thereafter. He joined the HITAVADA, a leading dailies of Central India at Nagpur as a      Sub-Editor ( Sports ) but gave up to complete his MBA in 1984 He thereafter added a Diploma In Export Management. He has authored THREE books namely Notable Quotes and Noble Thought published by Pustak Mahal in 2001 Indian Cricket : Faces That Changed It  published by Manas Publications in 2009 and Essential Of Office Management published by NBCA, Kolkatta  in 2012. He has a experience of about 35 years in Marketing .






Signature Of Shyamal Bhattacharjee 

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