Hockey India high performance director David John, who played a critical role in the selection of players in both senior men's and women's team as well as selection of coaches, finally opened up about the issues that arose from the team's disappointing performance at the Commonwealth Games 2018 last month.
Speaking to THE WEEK, John strongly defended the decision to send less experienced players to the CWG and refuted the claim that the juniors were unable to raise their game against stronger teams. He, instead, criticised senior players for putting up a disappointing performance, especially when it came to converting opportunities into goals.
While Hockey India's decision to swap the national men's and women's coaches has once again exposed the lack of professionalism and ad hoc decision-making in Indian sports, fingers are also being pointed at John as it was his assessment and input that led to Sjoerd Marijne selecting young and relatively inexperienced players for the CWG where strong teams like Australia and England were participating.
John has made it clear that as far as the men's team is concerned, there will be no further experimenting. However, he did not say whether this would amount to re-inclusion of veterans like Sardar Singh or Ramandeep Singh, given that young midfielder Vivek Sagar found it tough to combine with seasoned campaigner Manpreet Singh.
As for the women's team—treated in the whole affair shabbily and as an afterthought by Hockey India—their only consolation is that they will be getting a coach they have worked with six months back.
Excerpts from the interview:
There has been criticism that, at the CWG, the younger guys in the team whom you and Marijne backed, showed inexperience?
Looking at individual performances at the CWG, the two best performers were striker Dilpreet Singh and midfielder Vivek Sagar, who improved with every match and was our second best midfielder. It wasn't the youngsters who let us down. I am disappointed with the senior players' performances. There were so many opportunities inside the circle that were wasted—our goal conversion rate was 10 per cent. That was telling in the end.
In the last two matches, we played poorly because we didn't put the ball in the net. Against Pakistan the senior players made mistakes in last 26 seconds—that's when they scored the equaliser.
What will be the shape of the team going into the Asian Champions Trophy and Asian Games, with selectors recalling Sardar and Ramandeep Singh?
We won't experiment any more. Whatever experiments that we had to do, we did in the last four tournaments. We selected the best 18 for the CWG. Unfortunately, we didn't perform well. We will look at some members going forward but we can't make wholesome changes. We have a core of 21-22 players—we will select from that.
Have you had a chat with the players?
I have been in Delhi the whole time, so there has been no discussion so far. But Harendra was the men's team coach in 2011 and has coached in HIL as well as the junior World Cup. Nine of the players he coached in the junior World Cup are in the senior team now. Senior players, too, are aware of the head coach— there is no transition period needed with this swap. That is advantageous for Harendra.
We needed to take this decision now and not after Asian Champions Trophy. If the team had not done well in Asian Champions Trophy, it would have been unfair to make changes then with just a two weeks before the Asian Games.
How are the players shaping up?
It is not the fitness that let us down in the CWG. We were the fittest team both in men's and women's categories there. The number of interceptions we created were just not effective enough inside the circle. We need to execute better.
How challenging has the going been for Sjoerd Marijne and how tough will it be for him to take charge of the women's team with just two weeks to go for the Asian Asian Champions Trophy?
He was the coach of the women's team six months ago. The girls are familiar with him. The girls are happy that he has come in. They will progress with Marijne and I am confident they will win the Asian Games medal.
As for the Asian Champions Trophy, we would like to win it for sure like we did last time against Korea in the previous edition. I am not sure a lot of countries will be sending their best team to this event. We go to Spain after that for the women's World Cup in London in July and then there is the Asian Games two weeks later. It is a really tough period for the girls.
Do you think the girls will be able to adjust to the change in team structure and approach under Marijne from Harendra so quickly?
The girls played a similar style under Harendra. He didn't get enough time to change the style too much. He took charge and then the team had to go to the CWG.
The girls are certainly much fitter. I am happy where they are at the moment. The younger girls have got the experience now. I am sure Marijne will take them forward and we look to have a podium finish in the World Cup.