Under Paul, India will only climb up, says Olympian Khandekar

Principal Correspondent
Nagpur, March 29, 2015

DESPITE constant chopping and changing of coaches by Hockey India, India hockey player Tushar Khandekar feels Indian team would reach greater heights under newly-appointed coach Paul van Ass.
Sports Authority of India appointed Dutchman van Ass after getting approval from Hockey India. He replaced Australian Terry Walsh, who was controversially shown the door.
Paul’s first India assignment will be the Sultan Azlan Shah 
Cup tournament in Ipoh starting April 5.
“Hockey India has done a great job in appointing van Ass as coach of the team almost more than a year ahead of Olympics to be held at Rio de Janeiro. Paul as well as players would get ample time to know each other. Under him the Indian hockey team would only climb up,” said Khandekar, on a personal visit to city.
As a coach van Ass led the Netherlands men’s team to London Olympic silver medal.
Khandekar viewed that there was no harm in appointing foreign coaches unless they did not deliver.
“Foreign coaches are good and they are delivering. I am not against them. Indian coaches are also learning a lot from them. I am not saying that Indian coaches are not good. They are good but foreign coaches bring in lot of innovative ideas which helps the team positively. Jose Brasa had done well, Michael Nobbs also delivered well, Terry Walsh helped India win Asian Games and a berth in Olympics and I am sure under Paul Indian team would only move up.”
The ace Indian forward said India stand a good chance in the 24th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup.
“The team has done well in the recent past. They created history by beating Australia in their own backyard, won Champions Trophy and Asian Games gold. I am sure the Sardar Singh-led experienced side would reach podium in Ipoh,” said the London Olympian.
Khandekar, who was one of the assistant coaches of Indian Junior team as well as the senior squads, was of the view that India were improving with each passing year, thanks to Hockey India League.
“Hockey India League is the best thing to happen for Indian hockey. The league helped players learn a lot. Since 2012, Indian hockey graph is on upward trend. With the introduction of HIL, Indian players got an opportunity to learn a lot from players from Germany, Holland, Australia, Belgium. Their confidence level has increased manifold. They now know how to make pre-match preparation and how to present themselves post match. They are now learning how to be a professional player. The transition is visible and the performance is getting better and better with each HIL,” said Khandekar, who plays for UP Hockey Wizards.
The BPCL coach-cum-player agreed that India should look ahead in strengthening the goal-keeping department. When pointed out that barring PR Sreejesh and Harjot Singh, India did not have a back-up goal-keeper, Khandekar replied in affirmative.
“That’s true. There has to be a back-up. Sreejesh is doing an excellent job under the bar but Hockey India should look beyond him. If he suffers injury than only Harjot is left. There has to be a third or fourth goalkeeper in the scheme of things. But I think Hockey India is doing its job and has marked out some goal-keepers like Abhinav Pandey from Uttar Pradesh,” concluded Khandekar.

Undercooked VHA teams face bleak future in HI nationals

By Paritosh Pramanik
March 26, 2015 
FUTURE of Vidarbha Hockey Association featuring in the forthcoming nationals look bleak given the tardy preparations by the teams and the association’s “financial crisis”.
Vidarbha will be fielding junior as well as senior teams in the Hockey India nationals scheduled next month.
The junior nationals will be held at Mysore, Karnataka from April 1. Though the association organised preparatory and conditioning camp for the juniors, it lasted for only a few days. The camp was organised at VHA’s ground from March 17 in which outstation players too participated. But to everybody’s surprise selected players from Amravati, Wardha and Chandrapur were sent back home midway without the knowledge of coach and manager.
The coach and manager of junior team, Jageshwar Kaithwas and Prashant Manwatkar are working hard on the fitness of players from Nagpur everyday but there would be hardly any co-ordination between the players as around six players have returned home.
VHA president Radheshyam Sarda said players were sent home and would return on March 28. But he failed to give any concrete reason as to why the players were sent so early.
“Outstation players were sent back on March 20, almost seven days before team’s departure for Mysore,” said an official on condition of anonymity.
Another source blamed it on the financial crisis the association is facing. “There is no money with the association. We are finding it very difficult to take the burden of lodging of outstation players.”
Sarda, however, denied this.
“It is totally baseless information. Association is financially sound and more sponsors 
are coming forward,” Sarda claimed.
If the juniors are having divided preparatory camp, the seniors are clueless about their camp.
The senior nationals are going to be held at Pune from April 6-20. VHA selected team on March 20 but no camp has been organised till date. “I have no idea about the camp. I don’t know how would we get a chance to played a combined practice match,” said one of the selected players.
The senior team has eight players from Amravati, three from Jalgaon and one from Chandrapur. Only six were selected from Nagpur who are doing a combined practice.
“Seniors’ conditioning camp will be held from March 29 to April 2,” informed Sarda.
The players will have to iron out their flaws in those five days if they dream of qualifying for the knock-outs.
It is high time VHA took serious steps to enhance the performance of its teams in nationals. At present VHA teams are lingering in ‘B’ Division in all categories.