Inflated egos hurting Indian hockey: Terry Walsh

Former India hockey coach Terry Walshs first reaction yesterday when midday informed him that national hockey chief coach Paul Van Ass had been sacked was Im not surprised This must be the next part of the puzzleTerry WalshThe reaction aptly sums up the haphazard happenings in the Indian hockey setup over the last few years mdash right from Spaniard Jose Brasas coaching contract not being renewed in 20102011 to the unceremonious exit of his successor Michael Nobbs in 2013That was followed by Walshs ouster last year and now Van Ass sacking Van Ass ouster is being attributed to his spat with Hockey India HI president Narinder Batra during the recent Hockey World League in Belgium where he stopped the administrator from critisising the players soon after the teams 32 win over MalaysiaSystem failureHowever Walsh puts it all down to a systematic failure of the way hockey is run in the country Im saddened by what I see and hear I dont know what transpired between them Batra and Van Ass but I believe HI is simply not in sync with whats going on globally Walsh a world champion with Australia in 1986 said from his residence in Perth Walsh resigned from his post as India coach October 2013 to October 2014 after a disagreement in his contractual discussions with HI and the Sports Authority of IndiaAll fall down Indias Ramandeep Singh in white collides with South Koreas Lee Seunghoon during a Sultan Azlan Shah Cup tie in Malaysia in April this year PicAFP Walsh said its high time HI get their act together Im not saying that Van Ass or myself are the best fit but its incredibly important from the point of view of not just Indian hockey but world hockey that HI give a better account of themselves and what they do and how they do it because whatever they are doing is inappropriate added the 61yearold who ensured Indias direct qualification to next years Rio Olympics after guiding them to a historic gold at the 2014 Incheon Asiad a feat achieved after 16 yearsI tried but failedThe threetime Olympian said he tried to clean the system himself but failed When I was India coach I tried to establish a greater say for the High Performance Director Roelant Oltmans I wasnt asking anything for myself but was only trying to get better protocol where people who knew what they were doing were making the decisions rather than people who didnt But now its people who dont understand whats required at the international level who are making decisions again This is a case of ego vs common sense said the FIH Master CoachUltimately its the Indian hockey team thats suffering said Walsh I watched India play at the HWL in Belgium and felt very sad Theyve lost quite a bit and I cant blame them because theyve been pushed through a series of cultural changes with so many coaches in and outBrasa brought in European knowledge and tried to club it with the Asian style After him Nobbs spent a lot of time doing nothing Then I mixed the Australian and Asian style Now Van Ass brought in the European model again Spare a thought for the lads who are forced to cope with all this Consequently Indian hockey is deteriorating with each passing month