Hockey India is again in the news for the wrong reasons. A witch-hunt against Janneke Schopman, the women’s team coach, has become more glaring. Even before the Asian Games in Hangzhou, where the team won bronze, Bholanath Singh, Hockey India Secretary-General, started a tirade in private against Schopman, an Olympic gold medallist who is widely respected for her technical and tactical acumen. She has been with the team for quite a while and assisted Sjoerd Marijne when the team finished fourth at the Tokyo Olympics.
Yet, a lot of hockey fans are worried for Schopman as she faces needless pressure. On her return from Hangzhou, Schopman looked worried at the airport. She was avoiding people, especially the media. The facial contours conveyed stress, which has been inflicted on her. It is to her credit and the team’s efforts, led by Savita Punia, that the team won the Asian Champions Trophy in Ranchi recently.
The big picture is the Paris Olympics qualifiers to be held in Ranchi in January. The environment in which the women’s team is training and trying to qualify can well be understood. However, if the coach is under pressure from the Secretary-General and others, she has found that Dilip Tirkey, Hockey India President, has stood by her and the women’s team.
Tirkey is a respected figure, a former player first and only then an administrator. He has tried his best to ensure that the women’s team and the coach are able to train in a healthy atmosphere. However, the inside scoop is that the constant “fear and pressure” on the coach is not at all good.
When the Indian team finished fourth at Tokyo 2020, it was indeed emotional. Since then, there have been a lot of changes. Elections to Hockey India led to optimism that coaches would not be hired and fired. The first signs of nothing having changed came into focus when Graham Reid, the men’s coach, was asked to leave. He signed off diplomatically and was replaced by Craig Fulton. To Fulton’s credit, the men’s team won gold in the Asian Games and qualified for Paris.
The women’s team and the coach need motivation and a chance. To compete in the Olympic qualifiers will be hard, with European teams also in the fray. That may not be as big a worry as the hostile atmosphere.
Meanwhile, Elena Norman, Hockey India CEO, has apparently decided to quit after a 12-and-a-half-year stint. RevSportz has learnt from sources that Norman will resign in December in the wake of “the hostile atmosphere”, and the new Hockey India executive “targeting” her. Ironically, she won an award in 2022 from the FIH (world hockey) President Tayyab Ikram “for her outstanding contribution to hockey promotion and development in India and around the globe.”
Sources also told RevSportz that travel allowances granted to HI officials for overseas travel had been soaring. If that is true, it is shocking. Office-bearers are supposed to work for the love of the sport and not treat overseas tours as a holiday. It is also learnt that Tirkey is very unhappy with the way things have panned out. The grapevine says that he may also resign if Norman quits.
A lot of this has emerged from the Telangana Hockey missives that have been doing the rounds. At first, there was a flurry of e-mails exchanged between Telangana Hockey and Hockey India. And after Telangana Hockey was replaced by an ad hoc committee formed by Hockey India, there were allegations that money was demanded by a national office-bearer for the conduct of elections to the state body. Such dirt is worrying.
Certainly, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports cannot be a spectator when the very image of the sport is at stake.
Good comments on Indian hockey