Former national hockey coach Joaquim Carvalho struck at the performance of his successor Michael Nobbs, blaming the Australian has not done anything remarkable to galvanize the slumping fortunes of the team during his two-year-old tenure.
Carvalho charged that he has not shown any improvement in the Indian team. A good coach needs to emerge with good strategies against specific rivals, should posses good management and communication skills as well as ability to study the game. He is not a coach.
Anyway, Carvalho’s former India and Mumbai teammate Mervyn Fernandis has interrogated frequent changes of coaches. Fernandis elaborated that he doesn’t believe in talking about coaching. That is his personality. They have made so many changes, ushered foreign coaches after using Indians, but where have all these changes got them to? Of course before making any change they should see what the other options are.
Actually, Nobbs, under whom India ranked 12th with the wooden spoon in the London Olympic Games last year, is under serious stress to assist his team to qualify for the next men’s World Cup in The Hague, Netherlands scheduled to start in May-June, 2014.
It is known to everyone that the Indian team led by Sardar Singh, failed to achieve its primary target to qualify for the attractive event at the World League semi-final at Rotterdam in June.
Nobbs could be in jeopardy if the Indian team fails to attain a direct entry into the World Cup by winning the 8-nation Asia Cup, which is scheduled to span from 24th August to 1st September at Ipoh in Malaysia. India is supposed to compete with Japan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Korea, Chinese Taipei, Oman and host Malaysia. A top half back Carvalho who represented the country in 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, speculated that why Dutchman Roelant Oltmans, whose credentials were much better as coach, was operating as the High Performance Director and not as the chief coach of the national team.
Carvalho highlighted that Nobbs has been paid handsomely and in case India does not qualify for the World Cup, it will be money going down the drain. On the other hand, Fernandis insisted that a coach can take the players only to a certain limit, beyond which it is for them to carry their own game forward. He remarked that the coach has his restrictions and it is for the players to make extra endeavors to develop. He has observed that some of them lack basics. They pass the ball and then stand stationary, instead of running into open spaces. Fernandis gave an example that a guy like Birender Lakra was exhibiting good signs of improving but in the last tournament, he was thwarting. Further, the players are stagnating. They have to display the eagerness to improve.
