Merely appointing acclaimed coaches and axing them on a whim will not make us a top hockey nation again.
The recent unceremonious sacking of Roelant Oltmans, the experienced Dutch hockey coach of the Indian team has shocked many Indian hockey aficionados. For several reasons. Firstly, Oltmans had been promised a contract until the 2020 Olympics. Secondly, his track record in the last three years has actually been good, as he managed to steer the national team to several podium finishes and thirdly, Hockey India(HI) is hurting the sport by axing coaches every year. Believe it or not, HI and its predecessor have changed 23 coaches in the last 23 years!
Oltmans had pedigree. The Dutchman had coached his home country, Netherlands, arguably the most complete hockey nation in the world to an Olympic Gold in 1996 and a World Cup triumph in 1998. Taking over as the high performance director for Hockey India in 2013, Oltmans was never allowed to settle down in his primary job of developing grass root hockey in India. He kept getting drafted in as the temporary Indian hockey coach, to replace a string of high profile, international coaches that a whimsical Hockey India kept sacking one after the other. Incredibly HI sacked the likes of Australians Michael Nobbs, Terry Walsh and the Dutch Paul Van Ass in a span of less than three years!
Oltmans was made permanent coach in 2015. The Dutchman put his head down and produced results in his own quiet way. First up was a bronze medal in the World hockey League in December 2015 when India vanquished no less a team than the mighty Dutch in a penalty shoot-out. A first-time, international podium finish for India in 30 long years. This was followed up with a silver medal in the prestigious Sultan Azlan Shah tournament in April 2016 when India went down to a strong Australian team in the finals.
In June 2016, Oltmans guided India once again to the final of the Champions trophy where they went down once again to Australia in a penalty shoot-out. Soon thereafter, at the August 2016 Rio Olympics, India lost to eventual silver medalists Belgium in the quarter finals.
However, India bounced back in October 2016 and won the Asian Champions Trophy in Malaysia beating Pakistan 3-2.Sadly, for Oltmans, India finished a disappointing sixth in the June 2017, Hockey World League losing to lower ranked teams like Malaysia and Canada.
The mandarins in Hockey India are pointing to this recent debacle as one of the reasons for Oltmans' sacking, but it does not hold water, considering the positive results produced by him in the last three years.
There is something deeply schizophrenic about Hockey India's mental make-up. Why then would a hockey body keep sacking so many coaches? The problem is Hockey India is expecting to grab gold medals at every tournament without having a big pool of talented players and also a well-managed hockey infrastructure. The same 15-20 players have been playing for India for the last five years. There is not much of a bench strength to talk about and no thought is been given to developing the requisite hockey infrastructure. You cannot get gold medals without putting all this in place.
India has no national hockey academy, as we do in cricket. There are no regional academies either and no effort is being made to take the once popular sport to the grass-root level.
It will be very pertinent here to point out what the world's hockey powerhouse, Netherlands is doing to promote hockey in their small nation. Hockey is the second most popular sport in that country after football. However, the following for hockey on the ground is second to none. Just sample a few statistics. A country with a population of only 17 million has close to 3,50,000 registered hockey players, both young and old. That is close to two per cent of their small population plays hockey.
Club hockey is so popular and well organised in the Netherlands that almost every town and village has a hockey club with multiple artificial turf grounds. There are an incredible 450 such grounds across the small nation. These clubs organise age group hockey for people from the age of eight to seventy. According to a few media reports, an entire Dutch family which comprises grandparents, parents and their teenage children can be seen playing hockey at a particular hockey club on any given day. This is grass-root reach. Any wonder that the Netherlands hockey teams, both men and women are almost always on the podium for almost all international tournaments.
India needs to learn from the Dutch. Hockey India needs to ensure that schools and colleges start playing hockey once again across India. They need to start regional hockey academies and build a national hockey academy and have a very busy domestic hockey calendar to nurture talent. News of the cancellation of HI's professional league in early 2018 also does not augur well for the sport.
The recent unceremonious sacking of Roelant Oltmans, the experienced Dutch hockey coach of the Indian team has shocked many Indian hockey aficionados. For several reasons. Firstly, Oltmans had been promised a contract until the 2020 Olympics. Secondly, his track record in the last three years has actually been good, as he managed to steer the national team to several podium finishes and thirdly, Hockey India(HI) is hurting the sport by axing coaches every year. Believe it or not, HI and its predecessor have changed 23 coaches in the last 23 years!
Oltmans had pedigree. The Dutchman had coached his home country, Netherlands, arguably the most complete hockey nation in the world to an Olympic Gold in 1996 and a World Cup triumph in 1998. Taking over as the high performance director for Hockey India in 2013, Oltmans was never allowed to settle down in his primary job of developing grass root hockey in India. He kept getting drafted in as the temporary Indian hockey coach, to replace a string of high profile, international coaches that a whimsical Hockey India kept sacking one after the other. Incredibly HI sacked the likes of Australians Michael Nobbs, Terry Walsh and the Dutch Paul Van Ass in a span of less than three years!
Oltmans was made permanent coach in 2015. The Dutchman put his head down and produced results in his own quiet way. First up was a bronze medal in the World hockey League in December 2015 when India vanquished no less a team than the mighty Dutch in a penalty shoot-out. A first-time, international podium finish for India in 30 long years. This was followed up with a silver medal in the prestigious Sultan Azlan Shah tournament in April 2016 when India went down to a strong Australian team in the finals.
In June 2016, Oltmans guided India once again to the final of the Champions trophy where they went down once again to Australia in a penalty shoot-out. Soon thereafter, at the August 2016 Rio Olympics, India lost to eventual silver medalists Belgium in the quarter finals.
However, India bounced back in October 2016 and won the Asian Champions Trophy in Malaysia beating Pakistan 3-2.Sadly, for Oltmans, India finished a disappointing sixth in the June 2017, Hockey World League losing to lower ranked teams like Malaysia and Canada.
The mandarins in Hockey India are pointing to this recent debacle as one of the reasons for Oltmans' sacking, but it does not hold water, considering the positive results produced by him in the last three years.
There is something deeply schizophrenic about Hockey India's mental make-up. Why then would a hockey body keep sacking so many coaches? The problem is Hockey India is expecting to grab gold medals at every tournament without having a big pool of talented players and also a well-managed hockey infrastructure. The same 15-20 players have been playing for India for the last five years. There is not much of a bench strength to talk about and no thought is been given to developing the requisite hockey infrastructure. You cannot get gold medals without putting all this in place.
India has no national hockey academy, as we do in cricket. There are no regional academies either and no effort is being made to take the once popular sport to the grass-root level.
It will be very pertinent here to point out what the world's hockey powerhouse, Netherlands is doing to promote hockey in their small nation. Hockey is the second most popular sport in that country after football. However, the following for hockey on the ground is second to none. Just sample a few statistics. A country with a population of only 17 million has close to 3,50,000 registered hockey players, both young and old. That is close to two per cent of their small population plays hockey.
Club hockey is so popular and well organised in the Netherlands that almost every town and village has a hockey club with multiple artificial turf grounds. There are an incredible 450 such grounds across the small nation. These clubs organise age group hockey for people from the age of eight to seventy. According to a few media reports, an entire Dutch family which comprises grandparents, parents and their teenage children can be seen playing hockey at a particular hockey club on any given day. This is grass-root reach. Any wonder that the Netherlands hockey teams, both men and women are almost always on the podium for almost all international tournaments.
India needs to learn from the Dutch. Hockey India needs to ensure that schools and colleges start playing hockey once again across India. They need to start regional hockey academies and build a national hockey academy and have a very busy domestic hockey calendar to nurture talent. News of the cancellation of HI's professional league in early 2018 also does not augur well for the sport.
