One of the benefits or travel is being able to read local newspapers in various countries and see how the local journalists view their teams and sportsmen and women. It is also interesting to read the styles of reporting. Thankfully there are still some countries where they actually describe the action from a game, rather than filling the space with cliches from players and coaches.
In fact some the best sports writing today can frequently be found on independent blogs rather than mainstream media sites.
Some nations are extremely hard on their national teams and athletes. In fact it would be fair to say unrealistically hard on them. Others pump up their teams and athletes leading everyone to believe that they are in with a chance of winning and then go to town on the coach, the athletes and even the administration when they don’t win. Of course this has been exacerbated with the dawn of the internet and social media.
A case in point is the Indian Hockey team. Having returned home with a fourth place finish in both the Men’s and Women’s events at the Commonwealth Games there has been much navel gazing. There have again been calls for players to be recalled, coaches to be sacked and players to be banished from the team.
To someone who has never been fortunate to travel to India this may seem completely irrational behaviour. The Indian people are incredibly passionate about their sport and their teams. Their questioning indicates how much Indian sports fans revere their top athletes. How they yearn for the days of old when India were the team everyone admired for the way they played and the results they achieved. Understandably they feel that Hockey is their national sport, and they want to be back on the podium when the medals are handed out. In fact fans around the world would give anything to see both India and Pakistan vying for the medals in major tournaments because they have graced the game with so many magical moments, most know when these two nations are at their best then the game is the richer for it.
Looking at the FIH World Rankings going into the tournament India’s women were tenth, and above them were England (2), New Zealand (4) and Australia (5). So they finished as per their ranking.
In the Men’s India are ranked sixth, only Australia (1) were ranked above them. Silver medallists New Zealand were ranked nine and Bronze medallists England were ranked seventh.
Indian fans feel that based on the rankings their team should have done better. There are some who will argue that the result proves that the World Rankings are askew simply because India has hosted a number of tournaments and participated in events where World Ranking points have been available, at the expense of teams that have qualified or were ranked above them.
At the Sultan Azlan Shah this year India drew 1-1 with England and lost to Australia 2-4. New Zealand did not participate. At the Hockey World League Finals India drew 1-1 with Australia and lost 2-3 to England in the Pool games. They did not play England at the Hockey World League semi Finals. At the Sultan Azlan Shah 2017 India drew 2-2 with Great Britain, beat New Zealand 3-0 and lost to Australia 1-3 in the round robin. They then beat New Zealand 4-0 in the bronze medal game. In the International Festival of Hockey 2016, India lost to Australia 3-2, Lost to New Zealand 2-3. At the Olympic Games India did not play any of these teams.
So based on those results was it such a shock that India found itself playing off for Bronze? Ignoring the World rankings it probably wasn’t.
There have been, as there always will be with any team, questions raised over the selection of certain players. Some would say it was brave of the coach Sjoerd Marijne to blood youngsters Vivek Prasad, Dilpreet Singh and Gurinder Singh at the Games, but if not then, when? All had stepped up to the National team on tour or at the Azlan Shah, and all have shown they are players of great promise. At least they have now played in a major tournament and know what it is like.
Not surprisingly there have been calls for Sardar Singh to be thrust back into the midfield. Sardar has been an outstanding player for India, he has at times given all of us moments to savour, moments that will live in the memory for a very long time, however time catches up with every player. Sardar has been playing for the Indian senior team now for 12 years, he is 31 years old, and although age is no barrier, it appears that the turn of pace he had is no longer there. There comes a time when India has to look forward rather than back. They have a wealth of talent. Manpreet has already shown that he is a leader both on and off the pitch. We have seen Lalit, Chinglensana, SK Uthappa, Simranjit, Vivek Prasad and Sumit all play there in recent times. Then there are Harjeet Singh, and Devinder Walmiki who seem to have been overlooked. The talent is there, it is just a case of the coaching staff finding the best combinations. The question has to be asked by playing Sardar is India holding back a player of the future? By playing Sardar is India having to alter their style of play? He has had a brilliant career and it would be sad to see him still playing if his position was detrimental to the progression of the team.
Another issue that has been raised is the forward line. Here India has a wealth of talent, of that there can be no argument. Once more it is a situation where the coaching staff need to discover the best and most effective combinations and arrange their player rotations to suit.
If we look at the statistics on the tournament India certainly created the opportunities to finish higher in the tournament. They had the second most circle penetrations with 169, Australia had 191, in third place was New Zealand with 139.
When it came to shots on goal and goals scored in open play Australia had 49 shots and scored 16 goals. India had the second most shots with 38 but only managed four goals. More efficient were New Zealand with 34 shots and 10 goals, England 29 shots for eight goals, Scotland with 25 and six goals and Pakistan with 19 shots and five goals.
For a long time many of the Asian teams have become heavily reliant on penalty corner conversions. Could this be because the game has become more physical and the stronger and bigger Europeans have a distinct advantage? India were hampered towards the end of the tournament with an injury to Rupinder Pal Singh, one of their leading penalty corner specialists, but the statistics here again tell a story.
India won the most penalty corners with 39 and they converted 10. England won 33 and converted nine, New Zealand won 29 and converted 11. Wales were surprisingly the next best from Penalty corners with seven goals from 21 penalty corners. Australia managed five goals from 27 penalty corners.
Looking at the other Asian teams Malaysia normally so strong in this department could only manage two goals from 14 attempts and Pakistan four from 23 penalty corners.
So this shows that India created the opportunities from open play and from set pieces to finish higher than they did. It was simply their execution that let them down.
Although if we look at goals conceded they let in 14 goals in six matches. So an area in which they were expected to be strong could in fact have proved a weakness. India led in have the games they played except against New Zealand and the two games versus England, one that they won in dramatic fashion, the other, the bronze medal match they lost. Conceding more than two goals a game is always going to make it hard for a team.
For the record Australia conceded just three goals on its way to Gold, New Zealand ten as it took silver and England 11 to win bronze.
Coach Sjoerd Marijnehas said that “We created a lot of opportunities but the conversion was not good.” The statistics here show that. He has also said that “there were too many soft goals and penalty corners against us.”
The most interesting point he raised for the team not meeting the high expectations of Indian fans was “the individual level of the players was not good enough and they struggled with themselves.” As stated they have the players but it is the cohesion and the understanding that is lacking. Or is it? Is this too simple an explanation?
As mentioned in India there are huge expectations on the team to deliver. Expectations similar to the England football team at every major tournament.
Could both teams be suffering from the same problem? The ability to deliver under pressure.
Just as the England football team are accused of not trying sufficiently when they lose, so too are the Indian players in the hockey team. This is preposterous, as it is hard to imagine any elite athlete representing their country at a major tournament is not giving their best.
However this could in fact be the problem. That they are trying too hard. There is no doubt that the England football team like the Indian Hockey team have the players and the ability to beat most of the other top teams in the world. Maybe it is that pressure to achieve that is in fact holding both teams back.
It is a fact that often in life the only way to achieve or carry out a task is to try less hard, to relax to not think so hard about that task. To trust our instincts and the fact that we have carried out that task so many times our brain and our body knows how to do it. It has been said that when an athlete, a musician or a surgeon is at peak performance their conscious mind is very still.
Every Indian player, just like every English footballer is conscious of the expectations of a nation on their shoulders. As a result they become more conscious of every mistake they make in a game, of every decision they make and how it could impact the outcome. This is why so many play better for their clubs rather than their country. That pressure, that consciousness of what is expected is not so evident, they can relax, enjoy and perform.
Sadly as with the England football team history is the burden for India and that expectation will continue to exist. India as the statistics have shown had the chances to finish higher than fourth. The key to success in the big tournaments is going to be finding players who can relax their conscious mind and trust their innate ability within the structures that the coaching staff have laid out. If they can find that key what they could unlock has the ability to surpass the past, if not it will certainly rekindle it.
Maybe it is time to trust and let the players play.
