News

10-05 Being Ric Charlesworth at Azlan Shah

2011-05-10 10:05:00

Ric Charlesworth is a doctor of medicine, a former captain of the Australian Hockey Team, the State Hockey Team and the State Cricket Team. He was also in Federal parliament for 10 years then he retired to take up the position of National Coach of the Australian Women's Hockey Team from 1993 until Sydney 2000. Ric has worked as a high performance consultant to the Freo Dockers and as a mentor coach to 5 Australian Institute of Sport coaches.

He moved to New Zealand in October 2005 to work as a High Performance Manager for New Zealand cricket. Late 2007 to 2008 he worked as a Technical Advisor to Indian Hockey. In 2008 he was appointed coach of the Australian's National Mens Hockey team, the Kookaburras. (from www.riccharlesworth.com)

He shares his thoughts on a range of issues, from the Malaysian hockey team to the world of hockey in this exclusive interview with www.azlanshahcup.com

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Question: What is your opinion of the Malaysian team and are they heading in the right direction?

Ric: They are a good side but lack the basic ingredient required to excel in world hockey - that is consistency and depth in terms of quality players. At the Asian Games, they were solid in the group stages and scored from three out of the four penalty corners they had. But in the final it was a different story altogether as they seem happy to finish second and failed to stop from three penalty corners they earned. To be good the team has to be consistent and they need to be good in every sense of the word. In other words they cannot just rely on penalty corners to get the goals but must be able to score field goals as well. From what I have seen, the current team, with some players excluded, are a good team, even better then your 1975 squad. But I must say that I did not see much of your team in the 80' and 90's as I was involved in the ladies team. It is a question of playing good and quality international matches and in the next 10 months your team requires at least 40 odd matches in order to prepare for the Olympics qualifiers.

Question: What areas do you think Malaysian hockey needs to improve upon?

Ric: Well for starters your coaches need a sense of security. For example just look at the former Indian coach Jose Brasa. The one defeat against Malaysia in the semis at the Asian Games cost him his job. He was a good coach and just look how India beat Pakistan consistently in 2010. The same applies to your coaches, they must be given time, as success does not come overnight, unlike what some believe. If coaches are given short durations, then a success gives them the status of "Guru" while failure has a ready made excuse - we did not have enough time. So why do this. And when you remove coaches, what kind of message are you sending to the players, that the coaches are at fault with the players completely absolved of any blame for a failure?

Then there is a question of exposing players in foreign leagues. Even our players play in Europe and I wonder why Malaysia is not working hard at this option. Australia will be a good place and I hear that two players will be playing there in the league. But why just stop at 2 players? You have some talented players that can surely find places in our leagues. So an effort must be made to expose your players in different playing conditions for there is no end to learning new things. And at the end the national cause gains.

Question: Many have claimed that teams are using the Azlan Shah Cup for development purposes only?

Ric: I will not agree with that as it is one difficult tournament to win and the teams here are really good though they may have brought some younger players to blood. Just take a look at the teams. Pakistan has 6 players who have played 100 or more international matches. Then we have Great Britain (10), Malaysia (8), Korea (5), India (6), New Zealand (6) and Australia (2). Yes some key players are not here but it is not a developmental team tournament. I dare say after the Olympics, World Cup and Champions Trophy, winning the Azlan Shah Cup is a difficult task given the quality of teams and the playing conditions.

Question: The umpiring standard has come under fire and so too the non usage of the video referral. Your thoughts on these matters?

Ric: Firstly I am amazed that FIH system requires us, the top ranked team to play two matches on 4.00pm on consecutive days and also that we play two teams that have had to rest days before facing us. Something needs to be done in regards to the fixture. Do not get me wrong here, it is a wonderful tournament, despite the fact that we have to play 6 matches in eight days and hopefully this will bring some good in the end of the day.

As for the video referral, it should be a standard practice in all major tournaments, and the Azlan Shah Cup is no exception. We have seen some incidents over the past few days that could have been corrected had the system been used.

With regards to the umpiring, they are doing the best and I must credit the Umpires Manager for he provides valuable input to the umpires. It is better then last year and we just have to accept the decisions, though at times it can be frustrating.

Question: Hockey has seen many changes over the past two decades. Do you think that this is good for the sport?

Ric: The sport is evolving and is played at a faster pace then before. In the 70's and 80's we had siff hockey sticks, then came the curve introduced by the Indian manufacturers. Hockey equipment ahs seen many different changes over the years and this will surely have an affect on the manner the sport is played. For instance the edge of the stick can now be used and this accounts for a large number of goals in hockey. We need more innovations to make the sport more interesting and I am all for change, but it must be to improve the sport. The other rule is the off side rule that has been done away and this too is good for hockey. But we just cannot stop here as changes need to be made, we must evolve but yey cannot get carried away until it takes the charm out of the sport.

Question: You have always made calls for the reduction of the number of players in a match. And that stand has not changed. Why is there a need to reduce the number of players?

Ric: Less players means more space. With 11 players and the current rules, it makes it easier for teams to defend and that is not entertaining for the fans. FIH needs to seriously look at reducing the number to 9 players per team as that will make it easier for either team to score. We tried this in the AHL years ago but it has just found its way to EHA of late. Thus the national associations need to be creative and come out with innovative ideas that will help the sport. It is not FIH's call solely as the players need to push for changes as they are the key people in the sport.

Question: The qualifying system for major tournaments has come under question by many quarters and FIH has responded by introducing the World Series. Do you foresee any improvement to the system?

Ric: The best teams should be at the Olympics and it has to be 12 since there is limitations to the number of teams in a multi sports event. I do not agree on this three qualifying system and rather have something to what was done in Madrid for the 2004 Olympics. The top 6 teams (including the hosts and five continental champions) should be the automatic qualifiers. Then three other places should go by the current world ranking while the remaining three places determined through one qualifying tournament comprising of the top 12 ranked teams that did not make the Olympics through the automatic spots.

By holding three qualifiers, with one top spot, it is not fair to the teams as they have to play in different conditions, with different match officials and even different months. And they have to wait to find out where they will play the qualifiers till the continental tournament is held.

Then we have the World Cup. FIH should practice the notion of inclusive instead of exclusive as the case is now. We should have 16 teams as opposed to the current system of 12 teams as there is really no big gap in terms of the standards of the top 16 teams in the world at the moment.

As for the World Series, I am as confused as everyone else as to how this will work. So we just will have to wait and see.

Website Azlan Shah