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Journalism of Courage
CHENNAI, February 2: The fracas over the choice of India’s national hockey coach over the week-end has, to say the least, only served to highlight the indecisiveness on part of the Indian Hockey Federation.
While the "replacement" of Pargat Singh by Vasudevan Baskaran, in itself was hardly a surprise, the manner in which the change was brought about was rather surreptitious.
In the recent past, coaches have been changed and brought back at the drop of a hat, as it were, and in the case of Pargat, as he himself testified, the IHF erred in firs not consulting the triple Olympian over the appointment last year, and then summarily removing him last week.
In all fairness to Pargat, he had just one tournament as a coach, and it can hardly form a basis for a definitive judgement of his ability in this department.
Having said that, Baskaran, one felt, in the wake of a string of good results that he achieved with not only the junior team, but also the so-called "A" side. Ironically, the Padma Shri-awardee washimself responsible for the return of Pargat who had quit top-flight hockey following the 1992 Olympics debacle.
There certainly was an element of arbitrariness in Pargat’s appointment last year as the IHF found itself in a "no-man’s land" after the exit of Cedric D’Souza and when it needlessly dilly-dallied over promoting Baskaran to the vacant position.
The indecisiveness triggered avoidable speculation and Cedric, though appointed as Director for Coaching, was left twiddling his thumbs, as he had little say in how the IHF should proceed in respect of naming a successor. Even todate, one is unaware of Cedric’s responsibilities, leave alone whether his acknowledged status as a theoretician is being put to any use.
The IHF could have saved itself a lot of bother by straightaway putting Baskaran in charge after Cedric resigned in 1996. Instead, the Federation opted to take tournament at a time when there was a need to begin preparations for this year’s World Cup, the Commonwealth Games and the AsianGames.
Even in the present instance, the IHF has not explicitly stated whether Baskaran would be in charge just for the Indo-Pak series or he will continue for the rest of the year, or better still, up to the 2000 Sydney Olympics, as he rightly should.
It serves no purpose by leaving loose ends even granting that the IHF elections are due in mid-1998, and, as such, the present administration might be hesitant to take a decision which could be over-ruled by the next set of officials.
But it is best for the IHF to clear the air and show transparency in its working. The right step would be to appoint coaches on a long-term basis and save Indian hockey of the shenanigans.
