Coach and captain fight, IHF waves play on

When a couple of players started talking to the reporters, Rajinder Singh turned his ire on the captain, reminding him of the gag order imposed on players before the tournament. Pillay responded by saying, ‘‘I am not saying that only I should talk to the media. All the players should get recognition for the team’s victory.’’

The argument went on for a couple of minutes, Pillay getting visibly more emotional.

When it ended, the IHF had on its hands an unmitigated PR disaster, one that IHF secretary general Jothikumaran, standing with the players, did nothing to stop. A common sense approach at that point, allowing the Indian hockey players to bask in the afterglow of a very creditable performance, would have defused the situation immediately.

Instead, the IHF seems to have adopted a pigheaded approach. While a gag order during tournaments can be explained logically, denying players their moment of glory — and Indian hockey players rarely have the media flocking to them — is self-defeating.

The IHF could have used the situation to parade their more savvy players, such as Gagan Sjit Singh, Baljit Singh Saini, Sandeep Michael and Viren Rasquinha, those who won awards at the Asia Cup.

That things aren’t likely to change became evident from a late-night conversation with IHF chief KPS Gill, who supported the stand taken by his chief coach. ‘‘If it’s the chief coach’s decision then it has to be applied’’, he told The Indian Express.

‘‘Anyway, what is there to be achieved through an individual player’s interview? People forget it the next day. People remember performances.’’

Gill also didn’t think that the public squabbling between his coach and captain on landing in Chennai from Kuala Lumpur was bad publicity for hockey. ‘‘It is not worth commenting. It is a trivial incident which is important for you (media).’’

The incident was sharply reminiscent of the controversy after the 1998 Asian Games, when six members were sacked from the team that won gold. Some of those sacked players — for asking for better treatment from the IHF — never played for India again.