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Vasudevan Bhaskaran
Chief Coach of Indian hockey team
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'Our
first aim is to reach the semifinals at Sydney: Vasudevan Bhaskaran'
A chat with
Vasudevan
Bhaskaran , Chief
Coach of Indian hockey team.
Chat conducted on Wednesday, August 16,
2000, between 1500 hours and 1600 hours IST.
Vasudevan Bhaskaran: Chatting with the India Today Online
Group, I hope I will be thrilled with questions, which may be tough,
few may be meaningful and few may be quite discouraging. But I am sure
my chat with you will be interesting and satisfying with my answers.
Manish
Kumar: Mr Bhaskaran, what makes you so hopeful about India's prospects
in the Sydney Olympics?
Vasudevan Bhaskaran: The most important thing
about this team is that the boys have worked hard and they are confident
about beating any good team on the given day in the forthcoming Olympics.
The boys are mentally strong and physically fit which are the basic qualities
of a winning team.
Mukesh
Joglekar: Mr Bhaskaran, what are the reasons for the decline in our
hockey's standard?
Vasudevan Bhaskaran: There are many reasons
for the decline of Indian hockey. The first major reason is that we did
not provide the basic infrastructures to the players in India and right
from the seventies to the end of nineties the training of the team was
not scientific. Secondly, most of the countries like Holland, Germany
and Spain have taken up this game quite seriously and systematised their
training, right from the age of 14 years. On the contrary, though there
are lot of tournaments in India we still tend to play on grass, which
is excluded from the FIH calendar. But the basic standard of individual
performance of any India player is definitely much higher than the European
players. The standard of India hockey team has been very inconsistent
in many tournaments due to the above factors.
Ravichandran:
Why is that the flair is missing nowadays in the Indian hockey team?
Vasudevan Bhaskaran: The flair of the Indian
players is definitely not very encouraging as compared to the players
abroad. One is that our players are semi-professional; secondly, it may
be in training or in competitive tournaments. As a young player, the Indians
tend to be too casual in their approach because they still feel that they
are the best skilful players than anybody else, forgetting the other part
of the game like strength, speed and fitness.
Dilip
Ganguly: Is diet (food) a factor in India's performance. Just don't
say NO, please explain.
Vasudevan Bhaskaran: It's like this. I will
not say No, but definitely to play for India in any game and come out
victoriously, diet alone is not a factor. Being a nation where 500 different
languages are spoken in different parts of the rural areas, communication
is the biggest drawback when a player represents the country. However,
of late, the diet extended to all the players has been scientifically
devised by the experts in Hyderabad, who are excellent in nutritious feed
for sportspersons. Most of our players representating the country for
the last five or six years are well equipped on the diet part of it.
Dilip Ganguly: Will the Indian hockey team play against
Pakistan. If yes, why are we maintaining a double standard by not playing
cricket tournament with Pakistan?
Vasudevan Bhaskaran: Well, personally I feel
politics and sports are two different things but the Olympic motto is
'playing together, living together and performing together'. That's the
reason most of the athletes, irrespective of their caste and creed, rich
or poor, live in the Olympic Village for nearly three weeks, which few
people are privileged to do. But, in case, we are to meet Pakistan, I
strongly feel we should play, leaving asides the other part of the problems
that both the countries are facing.
Mohit
Kapur: Why is that most of the sports federations/ associations are
being headed by politicians? I would rather replace each of them with
cops and generals!
Vasudevan Bhaskaran: I think basically,
sports in India, though it is a small neglected subject, has been exploited
by most of the top politicians to popularise themselves. They grab for
position in any sports federation because here they have a permanent tenure
of five years. Whereas in their own field, they may not even survive for
even a week or a day. There are too many politicians who have, through
sports, become Chief Minister and Central ministers because of their involvement
in sports federation.
Sumant
Chengappa: Do you think hockey needs the kind of sponsorship and marketing
that went with popularising cricket in India? Jagmohan Dalmiya may now
be looking for a new job.
Vasudevan Bhaskaran: Sumant, it's a wonderful
question. I would recall my playing career from the seventies to the eighties
where the National hockey Championship was played on grass in most of
the cricket stadiums and the crowd would be between 40,000 to 50,000 right
from the semifinals stage onwards. In the 1979 India-Pak series, where
Indian hockey opened the doors for other sports, the crowd at Bangalore
and Bombay (Mumbai), at least 20,000 people could not enter the stadium,
leave the rest of the lucky ones who got to watch the match. I can still
compare the Ranji finals played, if my memory goes right, it was Delhi
vs Karnataka in 1978 at Bangalore and top cricketers like Mohinder Amarnath,
Surinder Khanna and GR Vishwanatah were playing in the match. The crowd
at the Chinnaswamy Stadium could be easily numbered but the marketing
of the game has developed in cricket due to several factors--almost all
the state associations were activated by the governing body, which in
turn saw many marketing people standing at the office of the state associations,
while it was the other side of the story in hockey except for few states.
Most of the state associations don't even have an office, leave about
thinking of marketing hockey. I wholeheartedly appreciate the cricket
board but at the same time I pity the hockey players. Though they are
equally good in their performance, they have been left high and dry.
Venkat
Narayan: Dear Mr Bhaskaran, compared to the previous Indian teams
at the Olympics, where would you rate the current team?
Vasudevan Bhaskaran : Comparing the teams
from sixties and seventies where India played Olympics, the art and skill
was the plus point and late in the eighties, the game had transferred
into more of strength, power and agility as rules kept changing. The game
has now become more demanding in the last ten years. As such, it is very
difficult to compare the team or players of the past with the current
players.
Wahid
Ameer: You clinched a gold as a captain. Are you optimist about winning
one as a coach?
Vasudevan Bhaskaran: As a coach I am very
confident that the team which is going to Sydney, will make me happy by
finishing on the medal podium. But, if you ask me about India winning
the gold, I think I will sound too ambitious if I claim that we will win
the gold.
Wahid
Ameer: The failure in the penalty corner put our team out almost in
all the matches we lost. Your comments.
Vasudevan Bhaskaran: I can only say that
penalty corner has been our major problem after a few of our specialists
disappeared from the team and currently we have Dilip Tirkey, Lazarus
Barla Baljeet Dhillon. Of late, they are able to convert penalty corners
and we have done extra homework in the last two months. At the camp, we
tried to correct their speed, reaching the ball fast and hitting the ball
quickly. We have shown a lot of improvement in penalty corner conversion
and I can bet, this time we will be at our best in this area.
B.N.Puri:
Mr Bhaskaran, It appears that you want to emulate the feat of German superstar
Franz Beckenbauer. Do you think you will be able to achieve the same result,
which Franz achieved?
Vasudevan Bhaskaran: Well, there are two
things. One, I will be too happy to do that but for the German coach he
had everything at his disposal for nearly for years, which made his job
easier, but it is not an excuse for Bhaskaran as I have always thought
very positively in my training. Hopefully your thinking comes true.
B.N.Puri:
Mr Bhaskaran, Do you not think that the 2000 Olympics will be your Waterloo
if you fail to deliver goods?
Vasudevan Bhaskaran: Well, in my hockey career
I have seen too many Waterloos and as a coach I am least scared about
my future in hockey because as a coach and as a player I have always given
my best to the country. I will be always willing to take up any challenge
on the development of the game.
Prasad: I wish the hockey team all the best for the Sydney Games.
I have been following the team fortunes for the past three Olympics. Hope
you get the gold this time at least.Can you promise us that only the best
team will be selected for each game?
Vasudevan Bhaskaran: Thanks for you kind
words. I can assure you the best 16 will make the team for Sydney. And
the best starting XL will play the match right from the beginning.
B.N.
Puri: Mr Bhaskaran, The game of cricket has earned a bad name so also
its coach Kapil Dev. As a coach will you like to be Kapil dev of Hockey?
Please comment.
Vasudevan
Bhaskaran:
Well, Kapil and me are quite close. I only pity
the game of cricket which has been the darling game of everybody. But,
I can only assure that since hockey is so fast and the matches are played
in high intensity there is no room to talk about fixing a game or managing
a game because by the time we have a conversation the match is over.
B.N.
Puri: Mr Bhaskaran, do you stand for professionalism or favouritism
in sports? Do you think professionalism can work in Indian conditions?
Vasudevan Bhaskaran: I think in most of the
subjects in India, sports being the last drop of a bottle, professionalism
in sports is too far away. I mean to say, professionalism does not mean
only the money factor; professionalism should come from the bureaucrats,
from the federation and all those who are involved in improvement of sports
in India. It is then the message reaches the players and they in turn
become professional about their job. This would definitely give any athlete
a big boost because he will be target and result oriented and definitely
would not like to represent the county and just participate and come back
to India without a medal.
Rashmi
Kapoor: Mr Bhaskaran, What difference do you find in the quality of
playing standard of past players and the players whom you are coaching
now?
Vasudevan Bhaskaran: The good quality of
the past player was that they were gifted with natural flair, like good
vision in the field, basic qualities were very strong and since hockey
was very popular and the team was winning hence they were quite constructive.
The current players, as the game changed, the level of sacrifice and the
level of training on individual skills were wanting. They perform inconsistently
due to these problems but the current players, if they can have result-oriented
thinking, then they can emulate past players like Dhyan Chand, Balbir
Singh, etc.
B.N.
Puri: Mr Bhaskaran, You are confident of reaching the semifinals in
2000 Olympics. Why are you not confident of reaching the finals? India
has in the past never ever thought of a second position in hockey.Pl comment.
Vasudevan Bhaskaran: Well, the first thing
is to plan your team to semifinals, because all the other countries like
Australia, Korea and Spain in our pool will be targeting the same spot.
But it is very difficult to predict sitting here and think of playing
the finals due to the fact the competition level of atleast eight teams
in the Olympics is of equal standard.
Gopalakrishnan:
Are we psychologically prepared to take on the tough teams in Sydney?
Or will the bubble burst as soon as things start to go wrong, as it has
happened so often in the past, especially since our team management has
not been known to do it's homework of studying the other teams?
Vasudevan Bhaskaran: Well, the question is
highly important because on number of occasions the team was good and
we have frittered away our chances but going back to the past records
and performances, it has come in handy to convey to the players what India
faced in the recent past and most of the departments where we have not
delivered our goods has been tied up and certainly it will not be repeated
at 2000 Olympics.
Gopalakrishnan:
Is it fair to say that cricket has cornered all the attention in sports,
when with a huge population like ours we should be able to support at
least a dozen different disciplines? Or do you blame any other factor
for hockey not being a craze in India?
Vasudevan
Bhaskaran:
I look at this in two ways. The first one is, cricket
has taken over hockey for the last two decades due to the good management
of the cricket board but the game of cricket you are talking about, is
equally distant-far right now. Because most of the other games are not
a spectator sports as it involved only about an hour and half whereas
in cricket, after the inclusion of one-day variety, it has become a spectator
sports. I can bet out of 60,000 people-watching cricket, 50,000 may not
even know the rules of the game but preferred to go there and spend five
hours and feel proud that they watched a one-day game. That's purely because
of the entertainment they get in the stadium, which unfortunately is not
drawn in other games including hockey.
Ranjan:
Do you think India is placed in an easy pool in the 2000 Olympic Games?
Which are the toughest team in our pool?
Vasudevan Bhaskaran: There are no two ways
of taking the pool as tough or light. Most of the countries in pool A
and B except for Australia being the host, all the other 11 countries
have qualified from their continents and have been training harder which
will make most of the teams well prepared. The only advantage in pool
B (India's pool) is that teams like Spain, Korea and Australia in the
recent past have played against us and it has made the boys feel comfortable
to play in pool B.
Dipti:
Your own coaching style has come in for lot of criticism? It is said that
there are better coaches than you in India but you managed to please the
bosses of Indian Hockey Federation. Please comment.
Vasudevan Bhaskaran: My bio-data in coaching
may satisfy you. As on date, I have been coaching for nearly 131 matches
and have won 70 games so far for the country. And my major victories are--Azlan
Shah six-nation tournament, 1997 Milton Keynes junior World Cup final.
For the first time, India reached the finals in the junior World Cup when
I was in charge. It will be not out of place to tell you that the federation
in 1995 invited me and I have rose from the grassroots, coaching the junior
team, developmental team and now the senior team. I would like to reveal
that I am the only FIH Grade-I coach in India, though many other coaches
have gone through the course but failed to graduate. I feel sorry to give
my bio-data.
Lakhsmi
Iyer: Do you think that the standard of Indian hockey team has improved
since the previous Olympics in 1996?
Vasudevan Bhaskaran: Most of the players,
who played in 1996 Olympics, are still part of the team for 2000 Games.
It is unfortunate that we couldn't be in the medal bracket in Atlanta.
But the team for 2000 is a combination of two players playing the third
Olympics; six players will be playing their second Olympics, supported
by eight other youthful boys. As the coach, I feel delighted to have this
team.
Anurag:
Will the Indian team be playing Asian hockey in Sydney Olympics or
are we adopting European styles?
Vasudevan Bhaskaran: For many years from
now, we have been playing 1-2-4-4 but at the 2000 Olympics, India is well
prepared to play different formations. I can assure you the team will
be playing a mixture of Asian and European style in few of the games.
Shivaji:
Which are the top four hockey teams in the world? Where do you think India
ranks?
Vasudevan Bhaskaran: I think on current form,
Holland stands No. 1. The No. 2 position is being shared by Australia,
Germany and maybe Spain. While the third position could be shared by India,
Pakistan and South Korea.
Surya:
Why is it that the media talks about hockey only during Olympics? Do you
think our media is obsessed with cricket?
Vasudevan Bhaskaran: I think it has been
a chronic problem with our sports writers. Only the fever reaches, talk
about India's participation in the Olympics. I think they should update
from October 2, 2000 and talk about 2004 Olympics.
Anil:
The Indian Hockey Federation dropped several senior players after the
1998 Asian Games. Only two players have been reinstated while several
deserving players have not been recalled. Will it affect the team's performance
in Sydney?
Vasudevan Bhaskaran: The reasons for dropping
few senior players from the 1998 Asian Games team was purely by the Indian
Hockey Federation and I personally feel, the current players, who have
replaced them are equally good, fitter and also younger. The team for
2000 is definitely fit and good.
Brij:
It is said that the Indian Hockey Federation is run in an autocratic manner.
Do you think there should be some accountability by both officials and
coaches?
Vasudevan Bhaskaran: I am for accountability
in all hockey matters. As the coach I have always been accountable and
target-oriented. But regarding the Indian Hockey Federation, this is not
my subject and I don't think I should be commenting on it.
Anu:
Why are Indian hockey players not paid any fees for playing? As the coach
have you ever taken up the issue with the Indian Hockey Federation?
Vasudevan Bhaskaran: Again, the members of
the Indian Hockey Federation have taken up this issue. Over the years,
this has been a great subject and as the coach, I have always felt that
there should be match fee from Olympics, Asian Games and other international
tournaments. This will definitely motivate our hockey players because
there is such a lot of money in other games like tennis, table tennis,
badminton, volleyball and football etc.
Moderator: Thank you Mr
Bhaskaran and chat participants for taking time out for this exclusive
chat.
We hope you join us again next time for another ITGO chat session. Till
then, goodbye.
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