Blind’ logic behind Kaushik sack

“The IHF officials did not favour the idea of getting senior players like Dhanraj Pillay, Ashish Ballal and Mukesh Kumar back into the side. I insisted on their recall for there was no replacement for them… there still isn’t.”

“Among the seniors players, I wanted forward Sanjeev Kumar, who was discovered to be suffering from partial loss of vision in his left eye during tests at Bangalore. Sanjeev is a left flanker who was the mainstay of the team for years and the chief architect of India’s resounding win over Pakistan during the 1995 SAF Games final. He was also a key player when Cedric D’Souza was the coach for the Atlanta Olympics. All this while he played with contact lenses. It never hampered his play; on the contrary he was brilliant.”

“Even with his defect, he seemed to fit into my scheme of things. But the IHF made it out to be a case of parochialism. Kaushik is trying to promote a Haryana player’, they said. I still maintain that Sanjeev, despite his age, was the right choice then, as were Pillay, Mukesh and Ballal. Sanjeev is a good defensive forward and he can also feed strikers in a counter-attack,” Kaushik added.

Kaushik also revealed that the IHF had made a written complaint regarding the Sanjeev matter’ to the Minister of Sports, citing it as the reason for sacking Kaushik.

“The hypocrisy of the IHF can be understood from the fact that even Rahul Singh suffers from a similar problem — defect in left eye — and plays with contact lenses.”

“However, despite knowing this defect, Rahul was made the captain of the side that went to Hamburg (Germany) for a four-nation meet under coach CR Kumar last year,” Kaushik stated.

The former coach said the fact that he aligned with the cause of the players irked IHF. “Recalling the senior players meant I was inviting trouble, for, most of them had ego hassles. Ballal wanted the captaincy and Pillay was unrelenting. I was willing to take the trouble. I made them sit together to sort out problems. Ballal’s presence made a big difference at Bangkok.”

Kaushik also said the current situation where coaches were being changed at the drop of a hat were a pointer to the utter confusion in IHF ranks. “Our chances for Sydney Olympics are zero at the moment. The way new players and coaches are being tried out defies logic.”

Kaushik also pointed out the glaring inconsistencies in the selection procedure. “The IHF shortlisted 70 players for 2000 Sydney Olympics after 10 simultaneous camps and then, three selectors were asked to ratify it. Now, what is the use of selectors in such a scenario?”

He said that unless more thought went into IHF’s planning, Indian hockey would lose its popularity even further.

“I gave my best as a player and then as a coach for the Indian team. I never played or coached for the officials. I think that is my crime and the federation wants me to pay for it.”