Trust your own men – says Kaushik

Stoutly defending the Indian coaches, Kaushik raised a number of points in their favour."Can a foreign coach have a proper co-ordination with the players in the face of language problem? Our conditions are quite different. We are more skillful though physically we are definitely weak. But we make up this deficiency with skill, short passes, dribbling etc. Moreover which country can afford to spare the services of its top coaches. We must have confidence in our own men.”

The IOA is willing to foot the bill of a foreign coach hired by the federation. However, the apex sports body is yet to make a similar offer to Indian coaches. It is reported that Cedric D’Souza is prepared to coach the team again but has demanded adequate compensation for leaving’ ESPN. Jude Flex has also reportedly demanded money.

Kaushik, however, admitted that the foreigners have developed and followed our technique thereby leaving us miles behind. The Indian coaches become silent once the federation announces the hiring of a foreign coach. “We have already lost considerable time. In fact we have not capitalised the time after qualifying for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. We have considerably lost time after winning the gold medal in Bangkok in December last.

“We need international exposure against Australia, Germany, Holland and Spain and other countries who have qualified for Sydney. Video recordings of the matches against these countries and Olympic qualifying tournaments must be thoroughly studied and then develop tactical training. The Indian team must reach the Olympic venue at least 10 days prior to the competition for proper acclimitisation.”

Organising Test series against Pakistan after returning from Bangkok and resting of six top players, including captain Dhanraj Pillay, has demoralised the Indian team which lost the series badly. “The series was without any aim and timing was against us. It has demoralised both the selected as well as the dropped players. It proved a step backwards. On the other hand, it was a morale boosting series for Pakistan,” opines Kaushik, who is presently a deputy director in Haryana Sports Department.

Regarding selection of 73 probables and adding nine more later for the physical conditioning camps at different venues, including Amritsar and Rampur, was bad planning. “The camps were just obliging in nature and more confusing. If it was a physical training camp, who were the physical trainers attached to the camp? Has the federation ascertained the level of physical fitness of the campers and the level of improvement required before and after the camp? Services of training methods experts namely Saju Joseph, Dr Kaul, Dr Cruz, Darshan Singh and Dr Hardyal Singh should be been sought for the camp."

Dealing with the training programme, Kaushik is of the view that after physical fitness, the stress should be laid on honing the tactical winning skill, like penalty strokes, penalty corners, field goals and defending and attacking set pieces outside the circle. Not more than 35 to 40 players divided into two teams should be kept in a camp, Kaushik felt.