JOIN USWith a little over a year left for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, the Indian hockey team has been forced to pick up the pieces when it should have been cruising along a roadmap charted expressly for a strong showing in the Brazilian city. A bitter war of words – not unfamiliar with the followers of the sport – has resulted in a change of a coach again, leaving the fans frustrated, the players clueless and the hopes of a decent finish in Rio a fading dream. The Paul van Ass saga, significantly, has also underlined an ill that has plagued Indian hockey for ages.
Coaches, foreign or Indian, have found to their dismay that working their way around the system in this country is the hardest part when it comes to training the eight-time Olympic champions. It was a tiff with Hockey India (HI) president Narinder Batra that paved the way for Van Ass’s exit after barely five months in the job. The Dutchman objected to the words being drilled into the players by the HI chief after India’s narrow win over Malaysia at the World League Semifinals in Antwerp. Van Ass perceived it to be an incursion into his space while Batra felt the coach was being rude and disrespectful to him. It didn’t take much time for the issue to snowball into a major controversy, with e-mails flying thick and fast. Soon Van Ass found himself joining the ranks of Jose Brasa, Michael Nobbs and Terry Walsh – all foreign coaches who left the Indian shores in recent times after not-too-joyful brushes with the Indian officialdom.
Free hand in selection, proper training facility, adequate support staff and timely exposure trips are what the coaches demand. And these are easier said than done in the slow-moving Indian system. Frustration is an inevitable result and when it is coupled with clashes with the administration, the way forward becomes increasingly difficult. That even a legend like Ric Charlesworth couldn’t survive here for long shows the hard task the coaches face on the Indian turf. It’s no wonder then that Indian hockey has slipped badly in recent decades, with occasional sparkles giving glimpses of the glory of yore. The frequent changes, besides sending wrong signals worldwide, also affect the players who are forced to adjust to different modes and philosophies of training, leaving them a confused lot. This time around, it is the HI’s high performance director Roelant Oltmans who has been handed the reins of the team till the Olympic Games. The experienced Dutchman has been with the team for almost two years. Even so, his task is far from enviable. A rocky ride then, but hardly an unfamiliar one.