True confessions of a hockey coach. This thought came to my mind when reading our national men’s team coach Jose Brasa’s public lament that he was being treated like a “slave” by the hockey and SAI authorities. Last year, he had told a friend of mine in private that he always carried his return ticket to Spain with him. I am sure, Brasa still does!
Such a pity that Brasa is being treated so shabbily, but then, he only had to ask Ric Charlesworth before taking the “challenging” assignment as the head coach of Indian men’s hockey team last year.
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Charlesworth, the Aussie legend, did his best to bag the coveted position and nearly got it, but got caught in the crossfire between the Indian Hockey Federation and the Sports Authority of India. His role was never clearly defined and the then Indian coach Joaquim Carvalho made no secret of his dislike for the Aussie and damned him at every opportunity.
Carvalho and Charlesworth played against each other in the 1980s. Both were half-backs, but Charlesworth was the more proactive player and was the central figure, besides being the captain, in the Australian team that won the 1986 World Cup where the Indians finished 12th and last. Carvalho was a member of that ill-fated team.
Twenty years on, at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Charlesworth lobbied for the coach’s post in Indian hockey. He spent a lot of time with Indian journalists, including me, at that World Cup, voicing his desire to coach the Indian men’s team while saying it would be “the biggest challenge of his career”. A few other top coaches too were eyeing that position.
It took another three years before Charlesworth was made an offer, though I am still not sure who made the first approach. Whatever, he came to India and was first said to be a “consultant” who would oversee the training programme. He got sucked into the politics of Indian hockey and returned home empty handed after spending a few months in India.
As fate would have it, Charlesworth came back to India earlier this year as the coach of the Australian men’s team and promptly won the World Cup in Delhi. I am sure, he returned home this time after proving a point and leaving the Indian authorities ruing what might have been had he come on board in 2009.
That being the case, Brasa should have known better than to take up the assignment in India. In fact, he blamed himself for the mess he is in at this moment. The truth is that Brasa’s credentials as a coach are insignificant compared to Charlesworth’s achievements.
The Spaniard’s only claim to fame was that he trained his country’s women’s team that won the gold medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. In contrast, Charlesworth won the gold medal at the Olympics, the World Cup and the Champions Trophy with the Australian team in the 1990s and, now, the men’s World Cup. I was told that he would be back in India next month for the Commonwealth Games and it is more than likely, he will return with another gold medal.
In the past three weeks that I spent in Singapore on a Youth Olympic Games project, I was often asked about the absence of an Indian team in the hockey competition. I was also bombarded with queries about the state of affairs in Indian hockey besides of course, the Commonwealth Games scandals.
Frankly, I had very little to say on any of these subjects and was very defensive in my responses, saying it was all a passing phase and things would be hunky-dory sooner than later. But this morning, the reality hit me in the face when I read Brasa’s outburst. It seemed that nothing will ever change in Indian hockey.
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I spent a few hours with Charlesworth’s assistant Paul Gaudoin in Singapore. He was at the Youth Olympic Games as the coach of the Australian boys’ team that won the gold medal, beating Pakistan 2-1 in the final. Gaudoin said the Aussies are determined to win the gold in Delhi and he along with Charlesworth would be picking the side on Monday next in Brisbane.
I am sure that it will please Charlesworth no end to win the gold at the same venue as the 2010 World Cup and rub the noses of Indian hockey authorities in the dirt once more. Brasa would be again made the scapegoat, but nothing else will change in Indian hockey, which will continue its listless way until the next disaster.
