By a sports correspondent

Many are the lessons for India from the recent Indira Gandhi Gold Cup hockey tournament in New Delhi While there is understandable anguish over the home team’s failure to successfully defend the trophy the question that needs to be examined in depth relates to the relevance of the event itself What prompted the Indian Hockey Federation to opt for an annual international competition in the aftermath of the disastrous World Cup of 1986 in London is unfathomable. If the intention was to match the concept of the Champions Trophy launched by Pakistan in the closing stages of the 70s the result can be reckoned as a fiasco; India showed neither the competence in organisation nor the ability to mobilize the resources to impress the International Hockey Federation Not surprisingly the value of the event was whittled down year by year since 1987. Currently it has been reduced to a club level competition with leading countries practically showing an indifference to invitations.

This is indeed a sad state of affairs for a competition designed to give more exposure to the national team in international competition. What is galling however is the threat from the International Hockey Federation to withdraw the status according to the event in the face of the critical references with regard to its conduct?

The complaints from some of the countries primarily related to the facilities given to the players in a center like Lucknow Whether the prestigious tournament would enjoy the same rating in the coming years is a big question market this point. The shift in the venue from Lucknow to Delhi just three days before the start on account of the volatile situation in the Uttar Pradesh capital caused a good measure of inconvenience to one and all. The flight schedules of visiting teams went haywire forcing the host unit to redraw the fixtures. It took quite some time for the administration to overcome the strain of moving men and material from one center to another causing disenchantment to every section connected with the tournament

For all the preparations and the resources expended the THF was unable to attract the best of teams. A request to Holland the World Championship to send its best possible outfit was curtly turned down and instead an under-21 squad preparing for the Junior World Cup put in an appearance Belgium and Poland can well fit the description of non-entities even in the European context and as such did not contribute much towards purveying a high quality performance. Only the Soviet Union possessed some highly skillful players and had no difficulty in winning the trophy.

From India’s standpoint also the event where it finished third was nothing short of disaster. The experiment of frequent shuffling proved a failure and exposed the lack of imagination by the selection committee in composing the squad. The team suffered from obvious and palpable weakness in defence not to speak of the inconsistency in attack. It is now clear that the sterile and stereotyped system of our hockey has lite chance of survival against the complex and highly sophisticated style evolved by other countries. But our coaches consistently refuse to see the reality of the new demands on synthetic pitches almost crippling the growth of even talented players. Western observers are simply aghast by the incompetent handling of our inherently skillful players by coaches who in their estimation are mere trainers without an iota of thinking in terms of tactical planning based on the quality of material available.

The recent debacle is sure to provoke another debate on the need for a foreign coach to meet the challenges that lie ahead. This will be all the more relevant in the wake of the resignation of the national coach Jamanlal Sharma on the last day of the Indira Gandhi tournament. So it is back to square one. What the situation now demands is a strong machinery to confront the challenges. If need be the present set administering the sport should be dispensed with. And for that the constituent units should come together in a more purposeful way to give a new direction and content to the Indian Hockey Federation. Procrastination is only a signal for further disaster.

Article extracted from this publication >> March 8, 1991