Is The Indian Hockey Running In The " Appropriate " Track

 

Is The Indian Hockey On The Very Right Track

 The F.I.H World Cup Hockey starts from the 13th of January next year and it is only that 15 days remains for the tourney to start. The million dollar question is-:

IS THE INDIAN TEAM ON THE RIGHT TRACK TO PRODUCE OUTSTANDING RESULTS

 Let us analyse the World Cup first where India has to produce a kind of unexpected result so that it wins the cup.The mute question is would India win the Cup?.

 We would have to go to the stats and the history of Indian Hockey team in the World Cup. The only success for India in the World Cup Hockey came about in the year 1975, on March 15th that year , when in an pendulum swinging match, India after going through a very harrowing moments, finally won the Cup by beating Pakistan by 2-1 in the finals, then, with the late Surjit Singh Randhawa scoring of a penalty corner, and the winner coming of a Ashok Kumar Dhyanchand’s goal to win it.It has been since forty eight years that India has not won that trophy or the Cup ever since that.The worst came in 1986 when under the captaincy of Mohammed Shahid, India had finished last in the championship, though the Indian Captain then, Mohammed Shahid was declared the best player of the tournament then.

 India’s Progress In The World Stage Of Hockey -::

Frankly speaking, India and her progress has not been any spectacular in any way and in any manner in the World Cup or in the Olympic stage of the game. Here at the Asian level we have won a few championship, including a GOLD in the Asian Games and also a GOLD in the Asian Cup, but for most of the times, we could not match up to the fast and the fitmess standards of the South Koreans, Japanese and the Pakistanis. We were found wanting at every moment.

 As far as the Olympics are concerned, I would not talk much about the Olympics as we had won the Olympics GOLD  in Moscow in 1980 but that gold was the shine without any glitter, and if one has to read it more about that one could read it in my book FROM DHYAN TO DHAN , INDIAN HOCKEY – SUDDEN DEATH OR EXTRA TIME published by Clever Fox Publishing. Wasting words on the same will not mean anything. Frankly we won an Olympic Bronze in 2021 after a gap of 41 years, the last when we won a BRONZE in the Olympics in 1972 when all the powerful nation playing hockey participated in that event.

 The question that arises is WHY HAS INDIA BEEN SO POOR IN THE WORLD STANDRAD OF THIS GAMES IN THE INTERNATIONAL EVENTS ?.

The answer is WE HAVE NEVER SELECTED THE RIGHT PLAYERS FOR THE APPROPRIATE POSITION FOR THE TEAM. Whenever India played or participated in any of the international events, we could clearly watch out that there were players in the side who were simply beloe average and not fit enough to warrant a place in the side.

 Atleast on every count there would be and there use to be atleast four players who cleanly appeared that they were in the side  because they had a GOD – FATHER to help their case everytime, and over it they were absolutely nowhere in the rein and the class of playing hockey at that stage of the event where everything that they possessed to give off their best on the field defied logics, and the case of being absolutely misfit to be in the side. Some of the players like M.M Somaiyya, the Captain of the 1988 Olympic squad for Seoul, Viren Rasquinha,  Ashok Kumar Sharma, Gundeep Kumar, in 1988 , and Adam Sinclair and Adrian De Souza in 2004 are and were a classic examples.



Pic - :: The " CULTURAL - APPROPRIATION " Of Hockey 

Infact one would be surprised if I say that Adam Sinclair was tutored hockey after every game India played at the Athens Olympics in 2004, and finally he was given a chance to play in the side against South Korea in the classification encounter. Just imagine a national player selected for the Olympics was tutored about how to hold the stick and play when an event of the stature of the Olympics was being in progress.

When I talk about the cultural reptresentaion of this game hockey and its foundation in India, I would have to make it very clear that Indian Hockey has been made it to be believed that this game belongs to Punjab and it is their fathre's property, whereas it is not.

Basically Hockey is a game articulated by the inhabitants from Uttar Pradesh, and Central India and was made to be a game of creativity by these who belonged and came up from that and those places, but the influence of Punjab on this game and the administrators from Punjab made it their personal property and it is from there that Hockey in India, started showings it decline. This is one area that needs to be weaned, creased and cut out for. Till that does not happens, Indian Hockey will continue to die its own death. 

Let me now come back to the present state of the Indian Hockey team and the problem that this surfaces while it is getting ready for the World Cup. The problem of the Indian team is enumerated as under- :: 

Some of the glaring problems that encountered India Was - ::

1). The poor execution of the penalty corners. India has always been found wanting right from the 1952 olympics about scoring the  goals through the penalty corners. Nothing in terms of unearthing the specialist in this arena has been done by the Indian Hockey Federation .If someone by the grace of the god had arrived, like the case of Mohinder Pal Singh in 1981, the Europeans and especially the F.I.H immediately came in with the change in the rule and implementing the drag-flicks during the conversion of the penalty corner and this again defies the logics.The drag-flick is nothing but a penalty stroke in conversion. This defies the logic of the  conversion biut there is nobody to question this in the F.I.H session and again if there are one, the voting system puts the Asian back into the cage of jeopardy.

 Every European nation is disintegrated when it comes to voting either at the F.I.F.A or the F.I.H. Yugoslavia has been fragmented into six small countries, and the U.S.S.R in thirteen. Eighteen of the votes straight away goes into the favoiur of the Europeans. There are hardly eighteen countries playing Hockey in the Asian level to put their claims in a strong ,manner.The result is any correct modernization and refinement of the game put forward by the Asian playing countries goes into the drain, and as such the Asian countries are the sufferers and this is the basic reason why the Asian style of magical and artistic hockey has waned.

 This is happening in the football where the Latin Americans are losing out to the Europeans and this is happening to the Asian countries, especially India and Pakistan the once upon a time, the two GIANTS of hockey to go to the drain. This could be a major reasoning for India to explain their inadequancy about losing it’s forte in the game , but overall the major weakness of the Indians have been their fitness and the staying power.

 Most of the Indians selected for the game ever since the Olympics of 1976 during and after the Montreal Olympics ,  have been very sub-standard in tyerms of the lasting p[ower, and in terms of the speed, strength, stamina, and above all the skill that is a fundamental requirement to play a high class of world standards of hockey.

 After Mohammed Shahid who played in between 1978 to 1988, we have not been able to produce anybody of that standard in terms of the depth of the class and the multi potential in terms of the quality as well as the skill that he possessed. There has not been a single penalty corner specialist of the class of Mohinder Pal Singh . These were the only two of that highest class of international standard of the players beside Pargat Singh that we could produce in hockey. This was ans this is the reason that we have totally failed to put us in any prestigious position in the annals of the world hockey. Some of the players like Sujit Kumar after 1982, and Syed Ali who were far ahead of the one’s who were selected in their place to play for India were just abused and used to be thrown away in the gutter and the pits. That explains all about the  vagaries and the democles of Indian Hockey.

 It clearly demonstrates the ugly face of the truest fact that our system  was totally a failure in their effort to produce world class players.Those who were somewhere near to that class and could have been converted into a world class were rejected and thrown out.They simply did not have the god father with them to make them a class of Indian and world hockey. Some of them who were considered to be of the world class and standard did not possess all the attributes of being a complete hockey players, and the one’s to fall into that category were Dilip Tirkey who was a class defender but a impoverish penalty corner connectionist and Dhanraj Pillai who was a media hyped entity .He possessed a bull like stramina but was nowehere in terms of the skill and the quality of Mohammed Shahid. We were playing with carry-overs and you cannot expect to win anything when you have a bunch of carry-overs. This has been the bane of Indian hockey

 Azlan Shan Cup And The Olympics Bronze 2021

 The 2021 Bronze at the Tokyo Olympics came in as a balm to give some amount of relief to the Indian hockey.The quartet who were responsible for that Bronze were Vivek Sagar Prasad, Rupinder Pal Singh, Harmanpreet Singh and P.Sreejesh. The others were O.K at times or were just above average but these four were outstanding. No sooner that the tournament was over it was Rupinder Pal Singh who was the first to be shot. His mistake was he was in touch with an Argentine Eve Hockey player, the lady in love with this man, which was considered to be a indiscipline, and this man was the target number one to be shot for?. A disillusioned Rupinder who was only 30 years of age and could have been easily carried to paris for the 2024 Olympics as a replacement substitute for penalty corners or the drag flicks that we call it as, is out of the touch now and has completely lost his interest in the game.

 Next to be shot at the foot was Vivek Sagar Prasad. A child prodigy of the style of the magical and classic hockey , being coached by Ashok Kumar Dhyanchand and  who on two consecutive occasion has been voted as the most outstanding emerging junior in the world of hockey was shown the door after the commencement of the Commonwealth games where India lost to Austrlia by 0-7 to win the Silver. It was the intervention of the Prime Minister which saw him coming back to the Indian squad for the World Cup .Is this the manner a emerging player has to be groomed for the future. Well, this is the fragrance that the Indfian Hockey has always  been showering to it’s hockey players, and this is in continuation since 1953.Nothing for that matter has changed.

 The Azlan Shah Cup where a second string of players from many a countries that participated in it, saw the Indian team winning a Silver.That was given a high grade of marks by the authority over here for the achievement .However it may be added that teams like Australia , Germany, Holland to cite as an example, use the Azlan Shah Hockey tournament to expose their second string players to graduate them into the highest echelon of hockey and to provide them the international standard in terms of experience. India always ends a first class team in these kind of tourney. Hence a Silver or a Gold in these kind of a tourney hardly makes any sense to drag in a fear about Indian Hockey in the minds of the Europeans or the Aussies, tough it instils a confidence in the Indian players.

 Frankly speaking I do not see any sense in the Indian team beating Australia by 4-3 in a Test match at Australia. It is said and it is believed that to instil a sense of confidence and  some kind of a belief amongst the Indian players, the preent indian Coach, Mr Reid, who is an Australian, had urged the Aussies to lose a Test to India in that five Test series for the Indians to gain some confidence. That was the reason that Australia played with most of uncapped and inexperienced players in that match to lose to India by 4-5. That made us go ga-ga, gala-gala, but the fact is we have never beaten Australia in either the World Cup or in Olympics after that 2-0 win over Australia in the World Cup in 1978 at Buenos Aires where baldev Singh and Ashok Kumar had scored apiece.

 How Is The Present Indian Team - ::

 The question that arises is how is the present Indian team that would participate in the 2023 world Cup Hockey at Bhubaneswar. Well I would opine it as such and these are my point of view. Having played this game at the University level for my College,  beside being a commentator for Hockey and having authored a book on Indian Hockey very recently, and being an analyst of the game these are the weakness of the Indian Hockey team. These are my personal opinions and are not subjected to scrutiny by any means. However if scrutinized and followed, it would serve the indian Hockey like nothing else as the best !!.

 The Indian Men Hockey Team Selected for the FIH Odisha Men’s World Cup in Bhubaneshwar and Rourkela in January 2023, in My Personal Opinion has few Shortcomings.-:

 Hockey is in my Blood and I cannot resist myself from commenting. My comments are as follow-::

 The Head Coach is the final Authority in team selection. Hence my personal view might not inspire him or would be liked by him but then for the sake of Indian Hockey I put my views as follow ::

 1 ). In the Present Squad there are  two  Defenders, who are not even 60% of what their performance was in Olympics and it has been obvious for these since last one year, then why are they selected

 2 ) . I do not understand why a particular midfielder is being continuously selected, again when his performance is just average, then why ???

 3 ). One forward who only plays for a maximum of 5 to 10 minutes either with or without ball running and this has been repeatedly happening for almost one year now, then why

 * 4 ) . ho is the other Dragflicker besides Harmanpreet, what have we done in last one year in this area. Do we have various options in PC,  and I have hardly seen any options in last one year. Harman has been read and marked for PC by all opponents especially Spain and England in pool matches. Do we have plan B or C…. for PC. If not, what is this Australian coach doing ?.

 4 ) . Of late we have seen quite a few goals going between the legs of a goalkeeper, is that goalkeeper fit or have his reflexes gone slow ? What has been done to enhance his agility, speed and the reflexes ? .

 5 ) . Our forwards stay behind opponents defence to receive balls, while opponents are allowed by few in our defence to freely collect the balls ahead or besides them and enter our circle. This has been repeatedly observed and what is that Australian Coach doing to eradicate this impediment.

 6 ) . The two weak links in defence have been seen to be allowing opponents to enter our circle repeatedly whenever they are on field, others will need to understand how to cover up for them.

 7 ) . Our Players at times have deliberately pushed balls behind back line and thus concede PC. I hope this will be corrected.

 8 ) . India is getting quite a few green or yellow cards, there will hardly be any match where 11 Players May have played for full 60 minutes, this is not good. Bad or rough tackling is a result at times of not being fully fit to give 100%in terms of the finnese or precision.What is that Australian Coach doing to eradicate this. . I hope team management is serious about fitness.

9). Our Goalkeepers have a habit during shootout to tackle wrongly and concede Stroke, this is happening frequently. Hope it is being checked.

 10 ) . Playing halfcourt against strong teams is never going to make you win matches needs serious rethinking.

 11 ) . I have not seen any changes in game plan if required from Quarter to Quarter, don’t understand what is that Australian  Head Coach and Analytical Coach are planning by being exposed with no plan B or Paln C  … for almost over a year now.

 12). The 4 players, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Harmanpreet Singh, Mandip Singh,  and one GK , P . R . Sreejesh , are the players the rest will need to watch out and cover up for since in my observations as these four athletes will be giving 100 % and other five almost 40 % to 50 % %, and this is not adequate to win the World Cup, however, the World Cup is in India and Indian Public will be cheering for you, so please cover up for each other and give your best.

 13 ) . I hope the Development team or India A team still exists and has not been discontinued by by Hockey India . India A is the feeder to India team in which the Athletes who are over 21 and not in India team are trained and tried for India team. This is lifeline to Indian team. This process to graduate the hockey team from the Junior to the Senior ought to have a planning for playing matches and gain the experience to play in the senior side. This process needs continuation.

 14 ) . I have no intention to discourage but alerting you with reality check to plan in advance about how to balance/cover up for your weak links and give your best and come out with flying colours.

 15 ) . The present Hockey India Management needs to take this seriously with upcoming Asian Games in 2023 and Olympics 2024.

 On a personal level, I wish the team led by Harman & Support Staff all the very best. I am sure that the team will give their best to come out of this event with Glory and make the nation proud.

 *Good Luck 

That is it 

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 FIVE  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, GOLDEN QUOTES on Inspiration, Sorrow, Peace and Life, published by B.F.C Publications, Lucknow, and QUOTES:: Evolution and Origin of Management Electives by Clever Fox Publishing, Chennai and From Dhyan To Dhan :: Indian Hockey - Sudden Death Or Extra Time published by Clever Fox Publishing House  . He has a experience of about 35 years in Marketing .






Signature Of Shyamal Bhattacharjee 

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