Hockey India’s coaching crisis
Miserable conditions for the Indian’s men hockey team can be well imagined as at present they are without a coach after the recent Asian Games.
Harendra Singh resigned from his post as a coach immediately after the India team lost to Malaysia 3-4 in the semi-final, taking the moral responsibility.
Harendra put in his papers after his team failed to qualify for the final, and said the Indian team was supposed to win the Asian Games gold medal as it had been working hard to make them up to the level. “Somebody had to put his hand up and take responsibility
for the loss and I decided to do that", Harendra said. "If there was any team which deserved to win gold, it was India. I am not happy with the result. After all a bronze is a poor consolation".
Harendra had a long stint with the Indian team as coach. Although in the beginning of the Asian Games, India’s performance under Harendra had been marvellous, as it had been on the top with 12 points. But the twisting semi-final match threw the Indian team
out of the tournament, which probably proved to be a great shock not only for the team but also for Harendra and fans of Indian Hockey team as well.
As far as Spaniard Coach Jose Brasa is concerned, his contract with the Indian team expired after the Asian Games 2010. Now a race among the coaches to take up the position as India’s team coach is on.
Harendra is also thinking to get back to his previous position as Indian coach, but on the conditions of sole coaching authority. "I am ready to reconsider my decision but this time I am not willing to work under anybody. I want full control as well as full
responsibility. If someone wants to blame anybody for team's performance, it should be me", Harendra said.
Other candidates who are willing to start as coach include Bangladesh’s German-origin coach, Gerhard Rach, and a Singapore based former Indian centre-half, Jude Felix.
Now Hockey India has decided to refurbish all the management of men’s and women’s Indian national field hockey teams. Many of the players from the team had a contradictory opinion for hiring a new coach, as captain of Indian team Rajpal Singh has conflicts
with Jose Brasa, while o Dhananjay Mahadik was in favour of the Spaniard.
To avoid protracted disussions, HI took a decision and announced the renovation of the whole team’s management. The purpose of restructuring the teams’ management is to upgrade their working to achieve tough targets. Newly hired people will give India’s
team a new start to build their passion for improved work.
Although on the other side it has some negative aspects as well, as the team will have to take a restart with new management and coach but in the long run the decision will be fruitful for the Indian team.
Triple Olympian and former Indian captain, Maneyapanda Somaya, gave her opinion that winning international matches and tournaments is not all that a team needs but good governance is necessary to be on top.
No one knows what decision HI will take for hiring new coaches. HI might hire a national or a local coach for its team but then again the main thing is good governance as Somaya said:
"I do not think it really matters whether our National team has an Indian or a foreign coach, or for that matter, winning international matches. Basically, a coach should have two attributes. One, he should have good knowledge of the game as it is played
internationally and second, man-management skills”.
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