Photograph courtesy Getty Images

hief hockey coach Gerhard Rach could face the axe if India fails to finish among the top four in the 2004 Champions Trophy, to be held in Pakistan in December.

A podium finish for India may result in Rach's contract being extended by another two years, maybe till the 2006 World Cup. If India does not finish among the medals, this could be Rach's last assignment as the national coach.

India has just 1 bronze medal in 10 appearances in the Champions Trophy - that lone medal coming more than 2 decades ago, in the 1982 Champions Trophy.

The IHF has received several applications, including from 3 Australians. Legendary player and coach Ric Charlesworth is said to be among one of the 3 Australian applications.

This is what the Times of India wrote:

"The IHF needs to shed its feudal mindset towards the coach's role in the team. Modern hockey is ruled at the tactical level and coaches play a crucial role there; but unless the IHF encourages the coach with the right incentives — a fixed tenure to plan and produce results, regular salary and a say in team selection — improvement can be ruled out. These are but basic requirements for developing any international team."

A senior player told the Times News Network, "Rach is obviously not anywhere near the level of the coaches currently with top teams like Germany, Australia, Spain and Pakistan. If it's about getting mediocre coaches, then we could have hired one of our own."

Another player said, "Rach has been good in some aspects, but that is to be expected from any European coach. It is a known fact that European coaches are ahead of most of the Indian coaches in instilling discipline and helping the team play as one unit. But we are not under any illusion about Rach; he certainly does not rank high."

If Rach cannot take India to Olympian heights, can Charlesworth do so? Simply put, Charlesworth has the best credentials of any living hockey coach on the planet.

Charlesworth is the only coach in hockey (either men’s and women’s) to have led a team to successive Olympic, World Cup and Champions Trophy titles.

The Charlesworth-coached Australian women’s hockey team won the 1993 Champions Trophy, 1994 World Cup, 1995 Champions Trophy, 1996 Olympics, 1997 Champions Trophy, 1998 World Cup, 1999 Champions Trophy and the 2000 Olympic gold.

In the extremely competitive sporting country of Australia, Charlesworth has won the Coach of the Year award (among all Australian sports) 5 times!

In addition, Charlesworth has written a book on hockey coaching and has also done expert commentary on television.

Thus, if the IHF were to base their decision on merit alone, Charlesworth is the best candidate to coach the talented, but temperamental Indian hockey team.

In an interview published by Mid-Day, Mumbai, Charlesworth said, "The biggest challenge in world hockey is to coach India."

Charlesworth is disturbed by the Indian statistics at the Athens Olympics. "In the India-Australia match at Athens, Australia had 22 shots at the Indian goal to India’s 4. That shows the inconsistency of the Indian side. Unless you create more chances, the team cannot win. Overall, there were 53 shots at the Indian goal. In the Athens Olympics, the only team that had a worse performance than India in terms of statistics was Egypt. You are never going to win with such figures."

Charlesworth goes on to say, "Let me make one thing clear. No country spends as much as the Indians on hockey. The time spent on exposure in Europe before the Olympics, the training session in the United States, it’s all very expensive. Even the Olympic gold medallist Australia can’t afford to do that."

However, merely throwing money will not solve the problem. Charlesworth goes on to say, "The whole coaching structure in India is flawed. You don’t have the technical know-how, and lack long term planning. Unless that is sorted out, there is no hope for the revival of Indian hockey."

Is the IHF listening? If not the IHF, are corporate sponsors Sahara listening, for they are the ones footing the expenses of the IHF?

With an offer to coach an Australian Rules Football club in Melbourne, Charlesworth signs off, "I will not be able to wait too long."

Article by Manish Kumar of The Times of India

t is not surprising that top coaches in hockey today are from outside the Indian subcontinent. The domination of Australia and Europe in hockey also saw the development of coaching skills in their countries, while India and Pakistan placed little emphasis on the tactical parts of the game.

Recently, Australian legend Richard Charlesworth offered to take charge of the Indian team, but the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) has not been enthusiastic about it. A keen follower of Indian hockey, Charlesworth told The Times of India from Perth that he was disappointed that the IHF wasn't interested in his offer

Charlesworth's coaching credentials are enviable - he coached the Australian women's hockey team to 2 Olympic titles (1996, 2000), 2 World Cup titles (1994, 1998) and 4 Champions Trophy titles (1993, 1995, 1997, 1999). Charlesworth was selected as the Coach of the Year in Australian sports no less than 5 times!

A doctor of medicine, Charlesworth also played cricket at a high level in Australia, and was a Member of Parliament for a decade. He took a break from coaching after the 2000 Olympics to write his autobiography and a book on hockey, and also took out time for TV commentary.

Excerpts from an interview with Charlesworth:

How would you compare the present Indian team with the 1970s teams?

When I started playing, India and Pakistan still dominated the game. We learnt our hockey from the sub-continental teams, but by the time I finished, we had the measure of them.

Barring the depleted Olympics in 1980, India hasn't been a semifinalist in a major event since 1975. This trend has become entrenched.

Are you amused to see the dilemma in Indian hockey - whether to stick to their own brand or adopt the European model?

I don't find it amusing to see India struggling as I greatly admire their skill and capacity. I agree they lack confidence and seem unsure how to play. I also think part of the problem is always to blame someone else (umpires, rule makers, the person who missed a chance) rather than to seek the cause and rectify it.

I do not believe the European approach is the way to utilise their skills. They need to take some things from the Europeans but still play with their flair and play to their strengths. Australia play attacking hockey and has shown they can win.

Indian hockey has seen many coaches in the last 1 decade ...

To do the job thoroughly a coach would need a full 4 years. However, some of the coaches are at fault as they have taken short-term assignments, promising results that cannot be delivered.

The present situation is a case in point. The change just three weeks before the Athens Olympics was sheer opportunism and unnecessarily disruptive. The preparation for the Olympics is a 4-year task, and the Indian team's preparations should already have started for Beijing.

If you were to suggest changes to improve Indian hockey, what would they be?

Not one or two things. The approach has to be multi-factored - overhaul tactics and techniques, establish a competitive National Hockey League, give tangible support to players in the national squads that covers training, preparation, competition, etc. Also, Indian hockey needs to emphasise on coach education programmes.

I could go on and on. The model from the Australian Institute of Sport is an example. In Athens, India, with 1 billion people (50 times Australia's population), won 1 Olympic medal, while Australia, with 20 million people, won 50 Olympic medals (50 times India's medals)!

Editorial by Arumugam in Stick2Hockey.com

o statistics gets their due in hockey? Certainly not. This is mainly because of the lack of a recognised database, which neither the global body FIH nor the Asian hockey federations deem fit to develop.

Even truth needs authentication by the competent authorities to become official.

Barring Northern Europe, Oceania and a few other countries, not many national federations keep track of how many internationals their own players have figured in so far. Even if they know, at least they have not been published.

In this part of the world, the lack of authenticated statistics is leading to confusion. Take for instance the recent India-Pakistan 'Dosti' series.

Five years ago, both the print and television media called the 1999 Indo-Pak series the 6th between India and Pakistan. In 2004, when the series was revived after a gap of five years, it ws hailed as the 9th Indo-Pak series! This is because statisticians across the border considered a few matches that had taken place on neutral venues in the Gulf as the part of the Indo-Pak hockey series.

In hockey, India and Pakistan have played on neutral venues in the Olympics or World Cup. Though India and Pakistan have played a series in neutral venues, not many categorised them as part of the Indo-Pak hockey series. Whether one looks at neutral venues one way or the other, the moot point is who will set universally accepted guidelines to the compilers?

Even the number of times India and Pakistan have played internationals between themselves is not clear. Statisticians include and exclude certain matches on their own judgment, with the result that the final numbers between any two statisticians never matches. Now we have a figure of about 120, which to me seems like a mix up. It looks like the acceptability of statistics depends on the reputation of the publication that publishes the statistics. This has undoubtedly created 'Knights of Falsehood', at least in India.

This is not the way hockey would want to develop as a professional sport. Somewhere, someone has to set the benchmark for others to follow and build upon. Certainly it is a global task.

Ambiguity exists even as to what are international matches, and on the status of exhibition and charity matches. In the past, many matches were played without neutral umpires. Are those to be considered international matches; if so, how many of them?

Holland came to India in the early 1990s, en route to the Lahore Champions Trophy. Holland played two matches in Delhi; one was lost by them, another was drawn. Holland considered these matches to be unofficial, while the Indian authorities at that time claimed that they were internationals. Because such issues were not considered worth of clarification by the powers that be, when Holland came calling this year, many called it a visit after 27 years, even though the Delhi visit was only a decade back, in the early 1990s.

India does not have many dedicated hockey statisticians, as the stakes are not much for a hockey statistician to have a sustainable profession. Otherwise, Dhanraj's milestone of 400 matches (a piece of statistic mentioned by the IHF president at Batra Hospital when the Indian team went to meet Jugraj with the Asia Cup in late 2003), if properly authenticated, would have been celebrated in India in a big way, as Pillai was stated to be the maximum capped player in the world.

But this milestone was allowed to die as a non-event simply because the IHF is never known to have a database on a player's caps, and suffers from a lack of credibility in such matters. So much so, some present day players include under-16 events in telling their caps!

There is an urgent need to standardise statistics. If that is done, hockey statisticians all over will heave a big sigh of relief. The question is, who will bell the cat?

Rajeev Mishra is a ticket checker with Railways (photograph India Today)

ajeev Mishra was the star of the 1997 Junior World Cup hockey tournament, leading India to a 2nd place finish. Following a knee injury in 1998 at the World Cup camp, the youngster was left in the lurch by the Indian Hockey Federation that left him shattered.

However, at long last, the 1997 Junior World Cup 'Most Valuable Player' is showing signs of returning to action. Mishra is currently in Mumbai for selection trials being held by Northern Railway for playing in the Nehru Hockey Tournament to be held in November in Delhi.

"I am feeling mentally strong and the pain has disappeared. I am looking forward to proving myself, and hope to be back in the national team," said Mishra to Times News Network.

"The experience back in 1998 had left me hating the sport," he said of his earlier despondency. However, last month, a journalist friend advised him to contact Mumbai-based sports physiotherapist Aijaz Ashai, who was attached with Delhi's Ranji Trophy team last season.

Encouraged by his family members, Mishra came to Mumbai and spent four weeks in rehabilitation under Dr Ashai at the city's Police Gymkhana.

"He was not mentally prepared for the treatment," said Dr Ashai. "I told him I was prepared to work on him provided he had a goal. He said he wanted to become the world's most dangerous striker. He had a slight limp. His knee and back muscles were weak and the hamstring began to tighten when he ran. Also, he was more than 12 kg overweight."

"I put Mishra on a one-month rehabilitation programme. He lost more than 6 kg since, and has become stronger and is sprinting well," said Dr. Ashai.

Article courtesy Stanislaus D'Souza of The Times of India

he Indian junior men's hockey team has a title sponsor in Sahara. The Indian junior women's hockey team is without any sponsor, being wholly dependant on the Government for financial support.

The Indian junior men's hockey team had exposure foreign trips to Kuala Lumpur, Cairo, Poland and Perth in the last couple of years. In the same time frame, the Indian junior women's hockey team did not leave the shores of our country for any foreign tournament.

In the 2004 Junior Asia Cup (men), the Indian team won all their league matches as well as the title. In the 2004 Junior Asia Cup (women), the Indian team lose all their league matches, beating only Japan to avoid the last place.

Indian men's hockey sponsors Sahara should show gender-equality in their sponsorship by helping both Indian men's hockey and Indian women's hockey. As the table below shows, only 3 countries are simultaneously in the top 5 in both men's and women's hockey - Australia, Germany and Netherlands. India's aim should be to reach the elite level like these countries, in both men's and women's hockey.

Nos.	Men	Nos.	Women
1	Australia	3	Australia
2	Germany	5	Germany
3	Netherlands	2	Netherlands

With the vision and financial backing of Sahara, Indian junior women can slowly make their mark on the Asian and world hockey scene, like their junior men counterparts.

Goalkeeper Marita Tirkey and Neelima Kujur watch as China scores
Photograph by Satish H. of The Hindu

he 4th Junior Women's Asia Cup was held from October 30 to November 4 in the Gachibowli Hockey Complex in Hyderabad. The participating teams were host India, China, Japan and South Korea, with Pakistan and Malaysia pulling out late from the tournament. The matches were played on a round-robin format.

The importance of this tournament was that the winner of the Junior Asia Cup would directly qualify for next year's Junior World Cup in Chile.

India's match results in the Junior Asia Cup were as follows:

Date	Result	Goal Scorers - India
Oct 30	South Korea 2 - India 1	Sarita Lakra
Oct 31	Japan 3 - India 2	Jasjeet Kaur Handa Deepika
Nov 2	China 3 - India 2	Jasjeet Kaur Handa Anjana Bala
Nov 4	India 2 - Japan 0 (3rd-4th placings)	Fulmani Soy Deepika

In the final held on November 4, China won the 4th Junior Women's Asia Cup for the first ever time, surprising defending champion South Korea 3-2 via the golden goal. India, with a solitary win over Japan, finished 3rd.

The Indian team for the 4th Junior Women's Asia Cup was as follows:

Players: Amrit Ming, Anjana Bala, Asinta Lakra, Deepika, Guddi Kumari, Jasjeet Kaur Handa, Marita Tirkey (goalkeeper), Neelima Kujur, Ranjita Devi, Sarita Lakra, Soy Fulmani, Subhadra Pradhan (captain).

Coach: Maharaj Kumar Kaushik

The Indian u-21 team in Perth, photograph courtesy Sukh Pandher

4-test series was held between the Indian and Australian u-21 teams at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, between October 24 and October 30.

India was comprehensively beaten by Australia 3-1 in the 4-test series. Australia scored 19 goals to just 7 goals by India. The match results were as follows:

Date	Result	Goal Scorers - India
Oct 24	Australia 6 - India 1	Jatinderpal Singh, PC (27 m)
Oct 26	India 3 - Australia 2	Nitin Kumar Birendra Lakra Jatinderpal Singh
Oct 28	Australia 8 - India 2	Jatinderpal Singh (2 goals)
Oct 30	Australia 3 - India 1	Nitin Kumar, PC (24 m)

The Indian team for the India-Australia u-21 4-test series was as follows:

Players: Ajmer Singh, Bikramjeet Singh, Birendra Lakra, Gurbaj Singh, Herojit Singh (goalkeeper), Jatinderpal Singh (full-back), Khushwant Singh Bajwa, Nitin Kumar (captain), P. R. Sreejesh, Pramod Kumar, Raghunath, Raja, Samuel Nag, Sardar Singh, Senthil, Sukhpal Singh, Sunil Ekka and Vikram Kanth

Officials: Chief Coach - Ramandeep Singh; Assistant Coach - Clarence Lobo; Goalkeeping Coach - Edward Aloysius; Trainer - Sampath Kumar

The victorious Punjab and Sindh Bank
Photo by Pavan Sharma of The Tribune

he 21st Indian Oil Surjeet Memorial Hockey Tournament (men and women) was held from October 28 to November 6 at the Olympian Surjeet Hockey Stadium at Burlton Park, Jalandhar.

At the exact same time that this Grade 'A' tournament was being held in Jalandhar, the IHF scheduled its national camp for December's Champions Trophy in nearby Chandigadh, causing a needless scheduling conflict.

Note that the Surjeet Memorial Tournament was sponsored by Indian Oil who employ about 5 national players. Indian Oil obviously had their top players like Deepak Thakur participating in the tournament. Similarly, other seeded teams participating in the tournament (e.g., Punjab Police) had their top players (e.g., Gagan Ajeet Singh) playing in the tournament. All this could have been avoided with proper calendar planning.

Back to the Surjeet Memorial Tournament. The following 8 teams were seeded straight into the pre-quarter final league - holders Bharat Petroleum (Mumbai), runner-up Border Security Force (Jalandhar), Indian Airlines (Delhi), Punjab Police (Jalandhar), Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (Delhi), Punjab & Sindh Bank (Delhi), Air India (Mumbai) and Shadman Hockey Club (Pakistan).

Punjab Police and Punjab & Sindh Bank reached the men's final, with the following match results:

Date	Punjab & Sindh Bank	Punjab Police
Oct 30	drew with Namdhari XI 3-3	beat Punjab National Bank 4-1
Oct 31	beat Air India 6-1
Nov 1		lost to Indian Oil Corporation 2-3
Nov 3		beat Bharat Petroleum 4-2
Nov 4	beat Border Security Force 4-1
Nov 5 (semis)	beat Namdhari XI 3-1	beat Indian Airlines 3-1

In the final held on November 6, Punjab and Sindh Bank beat Punjab Police 2-1 to win the 21st Indian Oil Surjeet Hockey Tournament.

The bank men opened their account in 35th minute, when Ajitpal scored an impressive field goal (1-0). In the second half, star-studded Punjab Police scored an equaliser through a field goal by Olympian Gagan Ajeet Singh in the 40th minute to make it 1-1. The tie was broken in the 64th minute when Parminder Singh of Punjab and Sindh Bank scored the winning goal after getting a pass from Baljeet Singh Chandi.

The Surjeet Hockey Society gave cash awards of Rs.  75,000 to the winner and Rs. 50,000 to the runner-up. Tejveer Singh of Punjab Police was adjudged the Player of the Tournament, while Shadman Club of Pakistan bagged the award for the Best Disciplined Team of the Tournament.

Punjab and Sindh Bank have won the Surjeet Memorial Tournament 7 times, while Punjab Police have won the tournament 5 times. The last time the teams met each other in the final was in 2000; at that time also the bank men had emerged victorious.

In the women's section, defending champion Northern Railway (Delhi), runner-up Chandigadh XI, Western Railway (Mumbai) and Rail Coach Factory (Kapurthala) competed in the Super League matches.

Northern Railway and Chandigadh XI reached the women's final, with the following match results:

Date	Northern Railway	Chandigadh XI
Nov 1	lost to Chandigadh XI 0-1	beat Northern Railway 1-0
Nov 2	beat Western Railway 3-1	lost to Rail Coach Factory 1-2
Nov 3	beat Rail Coach Factory 1-0
Nov 4		beat Western Railway 4-3

In the final, held on November 5, holders Northern Railway (Delhi) retained their title, defeating Chandigadh XI 2-0. Sandeep Kaur struck via a penalty corner to make it 1-0 for Northern Railway, while skipper Kamala completed the tally for her team.

With a view to attracting spectators, the Surjeet Hockey Society offered lucky coupon gift schemes. The prizes at stake for the spectators on the day of the final were a refrigerator, television, video compact disc player and other attractive utility items.

Rajeev Mishra in action in the 1997 Junior World Cup

he Photograph of the Month for November 2004 is of 1997 Junior World Cupper Rajeev Mishra. The photograph, as well as the accompanying text, is taken from an article on Rajeev Mishra in the issue of the English-language India Today magazine dated August 11, 2003.

Rajeev Mishra is a Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) with the Railways. He shares a dank 7' x 7' room with a friend Pramod Chaurasia in Kolkata. There is a large poster on the wall of this room. The poster is of Rajeev Mishra in India colours, and with a Harley Davidson bandana.

The photograph shows the centre-forward spotting opportunity, changing direction and having the look of a panther about to pounce. Mishra has signed the poster and added the maudlin words of a Boyzone song from the 1990s - "Love me for a reason. Let the reason be love".

Rajeev Mishra has made peace with the fact that Indian hockey couldn't find a reason to love him. The truth, however, is that Indian hockey probably doesn't love itself enough.

amsung Electroncis will the title sponsor of the 2004 Champions Trophy in Lahore, while Sahara, Rabobank and BDO will be the associate-sponsors. The cost of sponsorship of the Champions Trophy is $1 million. As host, the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) will get 70% of the sponsorship money, or $700,000, which will be spent on organising the competition.

The international television coverage rights rest with the FIH, while Pakistan Television (PTV) will cover the event locally.

The PHF is also in the process of finalising deals with co-sponsors. Reportedly, some business houses from India have shown interest in co-sponsorship, and would visit Lahore in November to look into the possibilities. All told, the 2004 Champions Trophy is expected to be a profit making venture for the PHF.

Article by V. V. Subrahmanyam of The Hindu

he executive council of the International Hockey Federation's (FIH) is meeting in Leipzig (Germany) from November 20 to 27, with a major topic on the agenda being the Third Umpire in hockey.

The FIH has already identified three situations where the option of the Third Umpire can be used. According to Kukoo Valia, Umpires Manager of FIH, the third umpire can help in determining whether:

• Hit by the attacker was from outside or inside the striking circle

• Deflection of a player did occur during a goalmouth melee

• Hit by the attacker actually crossed the goal line during crowded action

Mr. Valia was speaking on the sidelines of the 4-day umpires seminar held during the Junior Asia Cup for women at the Gachibowli Hockey Complex in Hyderabad. The umpires seminar was attended by 27 members from Asian countries, including 4 from Pakistan.

Mr. Valia said, "We don't think the game will become slow if we accept the proposal. The objective is to give a clear verdict in awarding the goal. Interruptions can be treated like injury breaks. Earlier, the FIH was hesitant to implement the idea since it was too expensive. It requires at least six cameras and a closed circuit. With improvement in the financial position of the FIH, there is a possibility of it being considered positively."

Manan Chauhan is this edition's Visitor of the Month. Manan is an alumnus of IIT Bombay, and is presently working in Gurgaon, Haryana. He wrote the following to BharatiyaHockey.org:

Though every 6th person in the world is an Indian, it is very strange to see India lag behind in the field of sports (which is quite human-oriented). Even the smallest of countries are doing well.

Modern day sports has become a high revenue business. In addition, the glamour attached to the profession adds to the motivation of the players. Then WHY is India lagging behind?

My initial analysis led me to believe that the basic problem lies in nurturing the players from a young age. Typically, an international standard player would stand out by his 10th class (16 years) with scientific training - at least this is what is happening in foreign countries. However, in India, after Matriculation (10th standard) parental/society pressure compels one to leave their activities and concentrate on studies for the sake of a career.

So I have decided to build a MODEL of how Sports School should function in India. And after my research, I would like to execute this plan. I plan to start with data pertaining to Sports Schools in India and abroad. For those interested, I can give a comprehensive view of the proposed plan.

Statistics by B. G. Joshi

ohail Abbas became the world's leading goal-scorer (post-war era) when he scored his 268th goal in his 217th international. This feat was achieved on October 8 during the Amritsar test of the 2004 Indo-Pak 'Dosti' Series.

The following is the year-wise break of Sohail Abbas' 268 goals: 

Year	Goals
1998	20
1999	60
2000	26
2001	37
2002	44
2003	28
2004	53 (till date)
Total	268

Against India, Sohail has scored 44 goals in 41 matches. Sohail's 268th goal was also the 500th goal of Indo-Pak hockey matches.

Sohail broke two world records earlier held by Paul Litjens - the most goals in a calendar year and the most number of goals. The following is a statistical comparison of Sohail Abbas and Paul Litjens:

Category	Sub-Category	Sohail Abbas	Paul Litjens
Goals	Matches Played	218	177
	Goals Scored	268	267
	Most Goals/Year	60 (1999)	58 (1978)
Olympics	Appearances	2	2
	Goals Scored	19	12
	Medals Won	0	0
World Cup	Appearances	2	4
	Goals Scored	12	26
	Medals Won	0	1 Gold (1973) 1 Silver (1978)
Champions Trophy	Appearances	5	2
	Goals Scored	28	26
	Medals Won	1 Silver (1998) 1 Bronze (2002) 1 Bronze (2003)	1 Gold (1981)