Indian Hockey’s dilemma
Foreign coaches have failed to reverse the tidewould an Indian coach make a difference?
NEW DELHI :
The dismal 10th place finish at the International Hockey Federation (FIH) Hero Hockey Junior World Cup Men in Delhi by the Gregg Clark-coached national squad in December has revived the debate about the efficacy of foreign coaches. Foreign coaches, hired at considerable expense, were thought to be the magic potion that would reverse the terminal decline of Indian hockey. But a handful have come and gone ever since German Gerhard Rach first took over the reins at the 2004 Olympics, without making any difference to the script.
The controversial German could only deliver a seventh place at Athens while Jose Brasa (Spain) managed eighth position at the 2010 World Cup in Delhi and Michael Nobbs (Australia) guided the “light blues" to ignominy—the bottom of the 12-team heap at the 2012 London Olympics.
Yet our hockey authorities continue to repose their faith in the videshi mantra. Currently, Australians are at the helm of both the men’s (Terry Walsh) and women’s (Neil Hawgood) teams, while the overall high performance director is Dutchman Roelant Oltmans. Foreign coaches normally bring in their own support staff—for example, Clark has South African countryman Dave Staniforth as strategic analyst and goalkeeping coach; Staniforth will also assist the senior team. What has irked “nationalists" even more is Hockey India’s penchant for appointing foreigners to administrative posts—for example, chief executive officer Elena Norman, competitions
director Todd Faulds, and tournament director Bjorn Isberg.
Ajitpal Singh, the 1975 World Cup winning captain, lashed out after the recent Junior World Cup debacle. “I don’t know what these coaches are doing. We have brought in all these foreign experts, physical trainers and scientific staff but the performance is still below par. Where have we reached?" he asked, while speaking to the media in Delhi.
The chorus for the return of an Indian coach has been growing louder and the likes of 1973 World Cup skipper M.P. Ganesh, Singh and the mercurial Dhanraj Pillay, among others, have expressed themselves on the subject on various occasions. A few months ago, Pillay, who coaches Air India, went so far as to say that he should be given the responsibility and would deliver results in a year.
However, Australian hockey legend Ric Charlesworth, a consultant for Indian hockey in 2007-08, maintained a few months ago that Indian coaches “are not good enough to fulfil the requirements" of the modern-day game and that a “foreign expert" is required. M.M. Somaya, a 1980 Olympic gold medallist and 1988 Olympic captain, agrees. He says foreign coaches have a thorough knowledge of the modern game, their approach is “scientific" and they do “thorough research" on their own team, the opposition and other aspects of the game, basing their training and tactics on this.
When one points out that they still haven’t delivered results, the Coorgi stalwart counters: “They do the job as best as they can. You can’t transform a team beyond what their capabilities are." There are other reasons for poor results, he argues. One important factor is that the training at the base level is geared towards producing, at the most, national champions. Somaya does add, however, that if a foreign coach is to be appointed, he must be the best in the business.
Former India captain and national coach Joaquim Carvalho is a critic. “Foreign coaches do not assure us of a podium finish. On the contrary, they say that we are so far behind that it will take six years to catch up, to insulate themselves against failure," he says. He maintains that the influx of so many foreigners in Indian hockey (the team has had three foreign coaches so far, excluding Walsh) and the fact that the country is hosting so many international tournaments is because the FIH considers India a “milking cow" and Hockey India is obliging it—the argument is that India is generating lucrative sponsorships for the FIH, which is why it is allotting so many tournaments to India; the Hero Hockey Junior World Cup Men will now be followed by the Hero Hockey World League Final in January.
Carvalho believes Indian coaches can deliver the goods if they get the same facilities and pay as foreign coaches. In other words, a time-frame, decent remuneration (Walsh gets a monthly salary of 12,000 Australian dollars, or AUD, around ₹ 6.6 lakh, and 1,000 AUD more than what the nonentity Nobbs was getting), incentives for winning, and top-class support staff (trainer, sports medicine doctor, video analyst, etc.). “Today, hockey has become a power sport so we need power training to compete with the others," he insists.
Carvalho is willing to see an Indian coach joining forces with a reputed foreign technical director to avail the best of both worlds.
Be that as it may, Walsh will face his first test at the forthcoming men’s FIH Hero Hockey World League Final in Delhi from 10-18 January. India are in Pool A, along with Germany, England and New Zealand, while Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium and Argentina are in Pool B.
Will the “wizard of Oz" be able to script a revival and stem the debate about the futility of hiring foreign coaches?
Mario Rodrigues is a senior sports journalist based in Mumbai.
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