Letter to Ric Charlesworth

Ric Charlesworth must have left India by now.
Here are few things that he said before he left:

• Indian hockey cannot run on anecdotes, there has to be some reality.
• The change has to come from within.
• I love India, it is a country of incredible contrasts.
• Corporatise hockey in India, that's the best way to put in place a professional structure.
• All the support staff of the team needs to have a proper contract.
• One good thing is that Indian media is interested in hockey and transparency to the media is very essential.
• What is the aspiration of a hockey player here? Playing for the country, maybe. But what he really wants is a secure job. He doesn’t think about getting a medal in Olympics for his country, he just wants to earn his livelyhood.
• India may do well in a one-off tournament in 2009. Everyone will feel happy for a while. But sustainable results? No, that’s not going to happen.
• The first thing they should do is to accept their mistakes and not make excuses and then go about rectifying the grey areas.

For more, one can refer, the following stick2hockey link
Here is what I feel like writing to him:

Dear Mr. Charlesworth,
It is sad that you left like this. Leave aside a handful of your dedicated fans and another few who looked at your recommendations in a neutral manner, there aren't many who felt moved by your unavoidable departure.
You put up with a system with which we ourselves are fed up. It is something like, if I ask someone what can be done to change things in Hockey they will say,"Nothing will ever going to change ... these administrators will kill the game completely."
The underlying fact is, "Not many have courage to work towards to positive change." That is why the administrators rule the game.
You were smart enough to interact with so many people that you understood the whole system in and out.
I once argued with a person pleading, "Atleast accept that something is wrong here. We can then take steps towards bettering it."
The response I got was, "No, the way you see it is wrong. It works like this only."
That sums up the whole situation.
Your mistake was that you found a problem in our system. For us, our system is the tremendous pool of players (and talent) that we have! That, by the virtue of above argument, is flawless and no one else has it to such a capacity.
We will keep pushing for recognition on this premise, no matter any medals come our way or not.
Your another mistake is, you have left our system stark naked. Because the fact is, we will not accept it. No matter, how embarrasing it is for anyone else, we won't accept this.
Second lastly, we will keep harping on the 8 Gold Medals that we won, sometime! We have a fascination for history.
As one of the popular movie songs says: ulti seedhi .. jaisi bhi hai .. apni yahi kahani ... phir bhi dil hai hindustani ...!
(whatever it is .. but we still are Indians)
Last but not the least, you should learn that in India if one wins a medal or a national level award, they have every right to rule the arena, thereafter, forever. They are waivered of for any Administrative, Coaching skills,etc related questions.

Just hoping that some progressive thinking leader will come forward, one day, and understand the gravity of the situation and your recommendations!
Signing off,
Best regards,
Shashank.

4 Indian Hockey Coaches go to Beijing

Few days back, it was reported that 4 coaches will be visiting Beijing to watch Olympics Hockey and there after, they will prepare their project report for the revival of the game in the country.
These 4 people are M K Kaushik, A K Bansal, Harinder Singh and A B Subbaiah.

Sometimes, I feel, if not drastically positive, but still Indian Olympics Association (IOA) is bringing about progressive changes to Indian Hockey (or shall I call it Hockey India!)
The idea to send coaches to different countries is not a new one. A lot of other countries do this and this is how they prepare their teams for major upcoming events.
After the Chile debacle, it was a much-asked question (by the Hockey intelligensia, ofcourse!) that why didn't India send anyone to Champions Trophy, Malaysia, 2007 to observe the game of Great Britian.
What India could have done long back is being implemented now. Fair enough. If not in full but in part.

The difference is that Indian coaches are not going for analyzing a particular team. They are going to observe the matches to present a report on what changes should be brought about to improve the condition of the game.

Understandable; atleast someone in power does think that there are lessons to be learnt from outside countries.
I don't think that this visit is a part of a shrewd game strategy that Europeans use but still going abroad to watch certain matches is definitely not a culture that took birth in India. So, in a way, it is a positive step that may prove to a "attitude-shift" in the years to come.