Moments after his appointment as the chief coach of the Indian hockey team two years ago,Michael Nobbs promised to reintroduce the flair in Indian hockey. There was something about the charming Australian that instantly made you believe his words. And the early indications were encouraging too India won the Asian Champions Trophy in his what was his debut tournament as the coach. But soon the frustration grew and the flummoxed coach haplessly watched from the touchline as his side lost match after match. The bottom-place finish at the Olympics last year only added to the dismay. So the World League Round 3,a World Cup qualification tournament,was being viewed as a yardstick to gauge how much India have improved since the disastrous showing in London. Unfortunately for Nobbs & Co.,the results aren't flattering. India finished sixth out of eight teams in a tournament that was won by Belgium. More than the sixth-place finish,what was distressing was the performance. India managed only one win in the entire tournament,against France,and were held to a 4-4 draw by a lowly Ireland. Inevitably,quite a few fingers are being pointed in Nobbs's direction,with experts suggesting that not enough has been done to stop the slide. Captain of the 1975 World Cup winning team Ajit Pal Singh,who is also a member of Hockey India's high performance committee,believes there has been little improvement in the last two years. "We haven't really improved much. The team's performances have gone down and I don't think we've done enough to stop the slide. The draw against Ireland showed the extent to which we've fallen," he said,sternly. POOR RECORD Hockey India's high performance director Roelant Oltmans's assessment of the shambolic outing in Rotterdam was simple. "To improve,India need to play the top teams on a regular basis," he said on Sunday. However,India's record against the top teams in the last two years has been rather disappointing. Under Nobbs,in the 40 matches against the top-10 ranked sides,India have won only eight and lost 24,while drawing 8 games. In these matches,they have conceded 114 goals while scoring 72. Over the past 24 months,India have not managed a win against five of the top 10 teams Germany,Australia,Netherlands,Spain and Argentina and have an inferior record against the likes of Belgium and New Zealand. It's must be noted,though,that the poor records against these teams extend much beyond 2011. Overall,the record under Nobbs has been average. So far in his tenure,India have played 75 matches,winning 35,losing 28 while managing to draw 12 of those matches. Olympian Ashok Kumar blames the downfall on poor team selection. "We have to ask ourselves,are these the best players we've got? By compromising on the quality of the players,we are compromising on the quality of the performances," Kumar noted. "They are not able to get the basics right,something as simple as tackling. We need to sort out those things first." M M Somaya,who was a part of gold medal winning team at the 1980 Olympics,believes the key reason for the team's failure is the lack of players for each position. "Right now,we have only one specialist for each position,which shouldn't be the case. We have to reach a stage where two or three players are fighting for one position,so our bench strength also improves. We have lacked in that area so far and you can see that in the results We need to develop a larger pool of players and to develop that,you need time," Somaya said.
