Finally a man to end the despair?
Recently, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) Secretary-General Randhir Singh resigned from the ad-hoc committee set up to run Indian hockey after the IHF was disbanded in April. He had been complaining for some time that decisions were not being taken jointly but arbitrarily by one or two influential persons in the committee. This complaint has also been expressed by other members and the national selectors. In fact things have been so bad that the convener, Aslam Sher Khan, had also tendered his resignation a couple of months back.
Although, Indian Hockey has been run in an ad-hoc manner for as long as I can remember, it is quite shocking that the ad-hoc committee continues to govern over hockey matters in this country, almost 8 months after it was set up as a stop gap arrangement!!! Things are falling apart and members are pulling in different directions. Suddenly, the euphoria over the sacking of K.P.S Gill seems a distant memory. I wouldn’t be surprised if the ex-cop is chuckling to himself thinking of the mess that has followed his dictatorial reign. At least there used to be consensus decision making during his time.
In the middle of all this, another politician has thrown his hat in the ring for the IHF president elections, whenever they are going to happen. Ex Member of Parliament Gufram Afzal sounds rather confident of his chances and has confirmed that he would relinquish the president ship of the Bhopal Hockey Association after getting elected to the IHF post. The funny thing is that Mr.Afzal is not even a member of the Bhopal body and is taking his first baby steps towards getting involved with hockey administration. Isn’t that music to every hockey fan’s ears?
On the playing field, our senior side started the Argentina tour on a bright note, winning the first two games, and almost brought some cheer to the few diligent followers of Indian hockey. But soon they were tormenting us, losing the next two games rather tamely.
Anyways, enough of the bad news – Now to the serendipity part.
The ad-hoc committee have just met and interviewed Spaniard Jose Brasa for the vacant post of the Indian men’s hockey coach. They were impressed with the homework the Spaniard had done, backing his observations of Indian hockey with technical data with medical inputs. He showed a fine understanding of India and its culture and had a comprehensively detailed plan to put Indian hockey back on the rails. Brasa comes with an impressive resume and has coached the Spanish women’s side to gold in the 1992 Olympics. Even Randhir Singh, who wasn’t involved in interviewing the Spaniard, conceded that Brasa was world class coach and perfect for the job.
And this isn’t the best part.
The best part is that Brasa has refused to take up the post, irrespective of whatever obscene amount of money the IHF can offer, unless he is assured of full technological support. Very clearly he isn’t a mercenary who is only interested in the lure of the lucre. So, unless, the IHF bosses plan to look at someone else, they will have to do something which has never been done in the history of the game in India – and the lack of which has ensured that we have continued to fall behind the rest of the world. Time and time again, Indian as well as foreign coaches have rued the lack of technology being used to prepare the Indian national side. That the IHF has been completely enamoured with Brasa and no other alternative coaching names are available, leaves the ad-hoc committee with almost no choice. They will have to relent and god willing (I am very superstitious about this), in spite of all the chaos that has followed India’s failure to qualify for Beijing; we will soon have a world class hockey coach with full technological support. If that isn’t discovering happiness in the most unlikely of places (read Indian Hockey), then I don’t know what is.
