CHENNAI, July 25: On Friday evening, a couple of spectators carrying a poster paraded in front of the VIP seats at the Mayor Radhakrishnan stadium here during the semi-final of the MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament. The poster read: Indian Hockey Sinks Like The Titanic.The embarrassment among the ``VIPs'' was understandable, for, there was nowhere to hide as hundreds of spectators witnessed the incident with great amusement. It was a telling commentary on the state of Indian hockey which on Saturday saw National coach Vasudevan Baskaran being sacked and replaced by his 1980 Olympics team-mate MK Kaushik.Baskaran's ouster is certainly not unique or without precedence in the annals of Indian hockey. The coach has always been the scapegoat while the federation officials got away scot-free, as in the present instance.To be fair, Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) president KPS Gill, at his very first press conference after the Utrecht World Cup, said in Bangalore: ``I accept responsibility for ourUtrecht performance.''The statement pre-empted any questions by the scribes.But then, the buck does not stop at merely owning responsibility. Words should be matched by deeds. In fact, the IHF top brass was as much culpable for the Utrecht disaster as Baskaran himself, not to mention the players some of whom were unworthy of selection if only on the basis of their physical fitness.The point is that neither Gill nor secretary-general K Jothikumaran showed the courage to quit their posts in the wake of the Utrecht debacle. After all, both were a party to team selection, and responsible for planning and preparations. MP Ganesh, whom the present administration has appointed as the Chairman of the Coaching Committee, will testify the circumstances in which he was forced to resign after the 1990 World Cup. Baskaran was not extended the courtesy of a resignation, or, for that matter, Kaushik was told of his appointment prior to public announcement. IHF, in any case, has never been known for suchprofessional niceties.Earlier this week, Jothikumaran declared that Baskaran was not dropped as the chief coach. And yet, he was not even consulted while shortlisting of probables. Thus, even as the IHF claimed that it had not announced a change of coach, there were enough indications of Baskaran's impending exit.To top it all, Gill, at the press conference on Saturday, unilaterally said that India will be fielding an ``experienced'' team for Commonwealth Games. When questioned further, he admitted that there would be few changes in the Utrecht squad. In other words, the players were let off even while the noose tightened around Baskaran's neck and the IHF played the hangman's role to perfection.The sordid episode was a testimony of IHF's gross reluctance to objectively analyse the Utrecht performance, but simply cast stones at the most visible and vulnerable target - the National coach.
