Carvalho exposes hockey’s stick-check

A lack of coordination in Indian hockey came to light at a function organised to honour national coach Joaquim Carvalho. Dilly-dallying on part of the Sports Authority of India saw the Indian team failing to get composite hockey sticks during the pre-Champions Challenge camps that were held last month.

If this exposed the official apathy towards the national game, Carvalho’s views on a penalty corner coach brought to light the miscommunication within the Indian Hockey Federation. On a day when it was reported that IHF chief KPS Gill was in talks with a penalty corner coach from abroad, Carvalho said, “I don’t believe we need a specialist (foreign) coach for penalty corner conversions. Don’t you have faith in me?”

Going back to the issue about hockey sticks, Carvalho explained the drama before their departure for the Boom tournament last month. “I had asked for 36 sticks — two each of the 18 players in the squad — but even after two camps passed I didn’t get them. I was later told that I would get just 28 sticks,” recalls the Indian coach.

Faced with this problem Carvalho went to the SAI’s stores department and was in for a surprise. “In the basement, I saw 200 hockey sticks lying unused, but the government was not ready to release even 36 sticks and then they say that hockey standards are falling,” he said.