The custodians of India’s national game, hockey, have been known to play ducks and drakes with the players and coaches and have done so for generations. Even so, the latest imbroglio, in which the national coach (paid by SAI to assist Hockey India), Paul van Ass, claims he has been fired when barely a year remains for the Rio Olympics, is a sad reflection of the mess the country’s amateur administrators are wont to put their sport in.
On the road back from sporting wilderness, the Indian hockey team became one of the first to qualify for the 2016 Olympics. A clash of personalities after a match in Belgium in which the HI chief was asked to leave the playing arena by the coach seems to have been the trigger to the latest crisis. The fact that four coaches have been given their marching orders in the last four years makes us believe the problem lies with the HI head, Mr Batra, rather than with the coaches. The pattern of hiring and firing professionals, who have been helping Indian hockey pick itself up by its bootstraps, betrays the egotistical ways of Indian sports administrators.
The question is, will they listen only to directions from the top court, as in cricket, or will they see reason on their own. They can do all the politicking they want to get elected to their posts, but the least they can do for sport is to let it flourish by backing sportsmen, hiring the best to help them realise their potential, and allowing professional coaches and trainers to do their jobs without interference.
