Tuesday 9 february 2010

Good morning,

The captaincy of the National squad of India has given more trouble than the selectors of Hockey India could imagine.

A real issue, going around the world,with all the negative publicity already.

Less then 3 weeks before the World Cup and India gets one bad press after another.

We can imagine things have never been so worse at the ground of Mother Hockey before.

At least it is at his boiling point. Running away and striking makes sense in India, last night Prabhjot Singh did.

And the actually preparation time should be now really up and running.

At Hockey Asia we have a poll about which team is best prepared.

Of course sentiments of different countries comes along, but the one who impresses us the most are the Kookaburras.

The effect of the having the developing squad together with the Kookaburras has lead to 39 top players and during the presence of Ric Charlesworth 14 new players entered the Kookaburras team.

Today we have the final 18 for you, who are not even 100% but maybe 300% top fit hockey toppers, ready to start the World Cup.

We don’t know how many young players entered the National team of India but based on publications we have found only 2.

It is not very impressive if you want to make a difference after 35 years of failing hockey development.

The differences are there, these are very minor and counting the numerous problems and issues at the start at the WC, it will be not one which can make India proud.

But let us take a moment and look back to the last 6 World Cup tournaments.

Did you know that the last time Australia won this trophy was with Ric Charlesworth as player in 1986? He retired at the age of 36.

Germany was winner in 2006 and 2002, Netherlands 1998 and 1990. And Pakistan celebrated 1994 as their last big trophy.

Nice piece of history. By the way Ric Charlesworth was National coach at Hockey Roos from 1993 till 2000 and won 4 Champion Trophies, 2 World Cups and 2 Olympic Gold medals.

A very impressive list for the Australian medical doctor and top coach.

Back to India where Hockey India formed a committee for player incentives.

A noble gesture in a country where hockey development is completely lacking and India not even recovered from one defeat after another by Pakistan.

What is the difference with Pakistan? And why coping the Pakistan system?

Pakistan has heavily invested by government side in hockey academies and artificial pitches and as bonus players get some better payments.

India however has no good structure in development and starts by paying players instead investing in development.

The world upside down.

And in the last years did we hear anything about payments of Germans, Dutch or Australian players for the national team?

Why not? Maybe these countries pays all costs for training and tournaments but no extra incentives to players?

From Dutch players it is known that all costs around tournaments are very well covered but nothing extra.

Something to keep in mind.

Investment in youth and development will always have better return than players who maybe get injured or lost for the national team in short time.

Have a nice day and keep smiling,

Hockey Asia