Too many cooks spoil the broth

July 2004: Rajinder Singh’s tumultuous tenure comes to an end as India took a giant leap ‘outside’ by bringing in Gerard Rach as first-ever foreign coach. Deemed aggressive, he thrashed our Asian style into one that stood close to European style. It was during his time that Gagan Ajit Singh first marked his presence felt in the Indian half as he set forth to strengthen Indian defence. Against their instinctive play, senior players rebelled and along with his inability to converse — most instructions were translated — Rach let down India. Resigned his job in January.

Jagbir Singh — held in great esteem within hockey circles as a shrewd strategist — gets a promotion and immediately given an opportunity in a friendly series against France. Having no longer forced to just translate Rach’s ideas, he constructed his own play positioning as India reverted back to aggressive hockey. However, his tenure was a stopgap arrangement.

APRIL 2005: Rajinder Jr takes charge and prepares the team for the Azlan Shah tournament in Malaysia. India finish fifth in a field of seven teams and the current tournament in Amstelveen is his second assignment. His mindset matched the other two Indians in charge before and there was no major tinkering. Except that he believed that midfield is the key and reinventing it. But unfortunately, the same forward line couldn’t convert much. The coach didn’t focus much on the vital linkman between the midfield and forwardline. Arjun Halappa, an out and out forward, has been asked to play as a withdrawn forward. With no ideal linkman spotted, there’s no one to create openings and feed the strikers, apart from forcing penalty corners. Now, with two successive failures under his belt, Rajinder Jr has openly lashed out at those ‘big-headed’ seniors and this is seen by many as a knee-jerk reaction to save his own job.