‘If not here then where’: Can Hockey India League change coaching system as it transformed players?

He isn’t the only retired India star to pivot to coaching. His London Olympics teammates Tushar Khandker and Shivendra Singh have been in Team India’s support staff for a while and the recently-retired PR Sreejesh was back in the dugout as coach of the junior India team within a month or so after his last international outing. Over on the women’s side, the legendary Rani Rampal didn’t waste time either in moving to a coaching role.

At different stages of their coaching careers, their paths crossed over the last month in the Hockey India League.

The first rendition of the competition transformed the Indian players who were exposed to the best practices of world hockey, enabling them to rise from being also-rans to back-to-back Olympic medallists.

Sardar Singh is the mentor of Soorma Hockey Club, coaches by Dutchman Jeroen Baart (R) (Credit: Soorma Hockey Club/ Instagram)

Revived after a seven-year hiatus, can the HIL have a similar transformational impact on the Indian coaching system? There are the stars on one side, hoping for a smooth transition into coaching; on the other end of the spectrum are coaches, like Siddharth Pandey, who have toiled on the domestic circuit for years.

In the ongoing season, every team has a foreign head coach with an Indian understudy. Sardar is the mentor of Dutchman Jeroen Baart-coached Soorma where Arjun Halappa is the technical director; Sreejesh is the director of hockey at former India coach Graham Reid’s Delhi SG Pipers; Siddharth Pandey is the team director of Hyderabad Toofans, coached by another Dutchman, Pasha Gademan; Deepak Thakur is an assistant to Colin Batch at the Shrachi Bengal Tigers while on the women’s side, Khandker is the assistant coach of Delhi SG Pipers, coached by Dave Smolenaars.

“Right now, the HIL is a great platform for Indian coaches,” says Sardar. And, currently, the only platform.

Over the last 15 years or so, India has spent more than Rs 10 crore, a conservative estimate, on foreign coaches. Each one, in their way, took India a step closer to the Olympic podium, a feat finally achieved under Reid and repeated by Fulton’s India. But questions have always been floated about how sustainable is this model to import coaches at the top of the pyramid.

It’s led to a situation where the players individually have grown into world-class talents. But lost somewhere in this India story is the plight of coaches. Harendra Singh, now with the women’s team, is an outlier who has remained a constant all this while.

Now, the bunch of players who have played a role in India’s resurgence want to ensure the next-gen doesn’t have to suffer like they did.

For Sardar, the coaching journey is also, at some level, born out of playing-career regrets. “It was my wish to win an Olympic or World Cup medal. But that couldn’t happen. Now, at least I can try to produce players who can lead India that far,” says Sardar, also the coach of India’s sub-junior team.

Sardar doesn’t immediately harbour the ambitions of coaching the senior team. He wants to spend more time with juniors, teach them the skills he possessed and hope it’ll make them fit enough to survive — and thrive — in Indian hockey.

”During my time, coaches used to change often, players used to be shuffled around, and my position on the field kept changing. Under Brasa, I played as a free man, my best position. Then came Nobbs and he put me in midfield and the forward line during the Olympics… The situation back then wasn’t in our hands. But at least I can prepare the players to be ready for all situations,” he says.

Sardar wants to return to the Netherlands, where he played club hockey, and observe the youth coaching systems of the Olympic champions. Then, the plan is to pass on those learnings, blended with his idea of hockey, to players aged under 15 in India. Already, he’s influenced the career of Rajinder Singh, who recently made his India debut. During the pandemic, Sardar trained the young centre-half, who hails from the same village.

“I want to work with boys and girls aged under 12, 13 and 14; teach them the basics and shape their careers. When those kids progress to the junior team, then seniors, I’ll take pride in the fact that I played a role in their development,” says Sardar.

For Sardar — and other former India internationals like him — the transition from playing to coaching has been smooth. That hasn’t been the case for other coaches in India, especially those who haven’t played for the national team.

Like Pandey. An International Hockey Federation Level 3 certified coach, Pandey has been the voice of Indian hockey with his commentary stints during big tournaments. For years, though, he’s also spent countless hours on the turf spotting young players and honing their skills.

For him — and others like him — the HIL has become the only platform to show what they are made of, given that the domestic competitions are no longer taken as seriously.

”What the earlier editions of HIL did was, India was outside the top 10 and our players were not getting high-level, high-quality matches. That gap was plugged in by the HIL. Guys like (forward) Mandeep (Singh) who were on the fringes got these 10-15 matches which were of international level.

“It’s the same funda that works for coaches like me, who are on the fringes of Indian hockey. We are not a part of the national team set-up so where are we going to go if not the HIL to get at least 10-15 international-level games to test ourselves tactically, psychologically, our planning, organisation, long-term thinking…?” Pandey says.

Sardar and Pandey both agree that under foreign coaches, they are exposed to finer nuances of coaching which is otherwise missing in the Indian ecosystem. At the same time, Pandey points to the value Indian coaches bring to the table through their knowledge of the players.

He cites the example of Hyderabad’s assistant coach Sanjay Bir, who is from RCF Kapurthala and the coach of the Railway Sports Promotion Board. “He is a part of the fabric of domestic hockey and can tell you how fit player X is or how player Y plays exactly. That’s where the expertise of Indian coaches comes in,” Pandey says.

”My aim this season was to have at least two Indian assistants. Unfortunately, I could only get one but I can assure you it’ll be two next season because I know what it takes for someone to get this opportunity,” Pandey says.

He adds: “This is an amazing opportunity for us to carve out a space for Indian coaches, team directors, assistant coaches, goal-keeping coaches, drag-flick specialists… because if not here, then where?”