Contemporary Indian hockey wins no medals. Even so, it has a most original, if unstated, motto: "The future is yesterday."India's glorious hockey tradition, the magic of Dhyan Chand, K.D. Singh "Babu", Leslie Claudius and generations of others, was once its pride. Today, this history is an albatross around the neck.The mindset which governs what was once the national sport is antiquated, obsessed with the past and confoundingly confident that success only requires putting back the clock that much more.Most recently, the Indian Hockey Federation sacked V. Bhaskaran as national coach and replaced him with M.K. Kaushik. The ostensible reason was the team's failure in the World Cup.Nowhere else are coaches given only a few months to prove themselves. Ideally, they should have a three to four year contract, be allowed to reshape players and skills and then assessed. A mere change of guard, rather than one of policy, will achieve nothing. Before the year is out, Kaushik too is likely to lose his job.The essential problem is two-fold. One, India looks to every new tournament as the one which will signal a revival, as if the ingredients for rejuvenation are already there. Two, all energies are focused on the national team. This ignores the decay at the junior levels..preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}Players grow up on grass, are given lectures on the virtues of dribbling. When they graduate to international matches, they find themselves hopelessly obsolete in the speedy and athletic game played on astroturf.The Commonwealth Games are a month away. Other teams are preparing hard; India's has not even been selected.Instead, Kaushik has been given 51 players for a preliminary camp. After India gets the inevitable drubbing at the games, perhaps it will consider hiring a quality foreign coach for its under-16 squad-and asking him for a bronze at the 2004 Olympics.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Aug 10, 1998--- ENDS ---
