With the World Cup due in May, we could revisit a moment in Indian hockey when a promising team sank in a heap. This was the Atlanta Olympics, where India was hoping to deliver a surprise.
In a show of uncharacteristic promise India had beaten the Netherlands 4-1 in the Olympics qualifying tournament in Barcelona in 1995, and Belgium 4-2. India had handed the Netherlands its first defeat to India in a major tournament after the 1986 Champions Trophy. The team’s improvement seemed a consistent factor in its preparations for Atlanta. After the qualifiers India beat Olympic champions Pakistan 5-2 in the South Asian Federation Games, Dhanraj Pillay scoring a hat trick.
Having been at the Atlanta Olympics I can vouch for the electric atmosphere the Games generated. India’s hockey team was regrouping, and trying to find the rhythm that might make it count as a medal contender. I watched all of India’s hockey matches at the Games. The stands were full, befitting the Olympics, and the atmosphere smelt of the loftiness of the moment. The players were warmly cheered when they came to the field, regardless of the teams they played for. For me watching hockey was the thrill, and it was not just about India. Gladiators testing their mettle in the Olympic arena was the experience of a lifetime.
India’s 0-1 defeat in its opening game to Argentina made the team sombre and subdued, but it did not lose heart. At an Indian restaurant the night before the match against Germany I wished Pargat Singh luck for the upcoming game. he looked deep into my eyes and said with utter conviction that India would win. I was more sceptical about India’s victory than him, because I had not followed India’s steady ascension in the build up to Atlanta. After holding on to a slender lead India should have beaten Germany, but a German goal minutes from the game’s end sealed a 1-1 draw. Goalkeeper Subbaiah had a fine game, keeping away seven penalty corners from the Germans.
After the game against Germany I felt the scent of better things, and regularly met the players in the evenings. They seemed relaxed, and presented me a hockey stick with their autographs inscribed on it. Dhanraj Pillay gave my son a key chain with a miniature hockey stick. We may have been forgiven for thinking that a happy and settled team might unseat the better tacticians of world hockey at that moment. But I was anxious, and my mind was darting towards the possibilities of the games that lay ahead. little did I know that below India’s outward cheer lay fragile mental preparation for the upcoming matches. A 4-0 win against the US was no real indicator of the team’s true strength.
The India-Pakistan game at the Morris Brown College stadium had 15,000 spectators, and scalpers selling tickets on the black market. Outside the stadium it seemed a Hollywood blockbuster had sold out. But the game lacked the lofty moments that make for an epic struggle. The Indians suffered agony on the field. Dhanraj Pillay’s shot hit the post. The team felt that it had been denied a penalty stroke, and what appeared to be a legitimate goal near the game’s end. Even though the Indians had put the ball into the net the umpire ruled that it had risen dangerously off Harpreet Singh’s stick. The game was drawn 0-0. The Indians thought that they were being punished by the umpires for the draw against Malaysia in the Olympics qualifiers in 1995, which had kept Canada out of the Olympics.
Pointing to the disallowed goal against Pakistan coach Cedric D’Souza was to assert: “As far as I am concerned, it was a clear goal.” But more telling was the almost celebratory Indian lap of honour at not losing to Pakistan, while the Pakistani team walked away downcast. Seeing this episode with my own eyes, I knew that India lacked that mad, desperate hunger for victory which it needed on the Olympic stage. Access to the players dried up, because they went into their shells. Yet, even if India had failed to qualify for the semifinals, there lay an opportunity to build a team for the future by winning the classification games against Korea and Britain for the 5th to 8th place playoffs. India lost both games from winning positions.
Atlanta was clearly a case of a psychological meltdown, but other factors might have militated against India. A lot of goals at Atlanta were scored from set pieces, an area where teams like India and Pakistan were weak. With their poorer penalty corner drills than the Europeans, India and Pakistan faltered. The off sider rule was abandoned as a result, to create more open play. There may not have been any particular intent in this, other than to make the game more attractive to spectators. Despite this, the results have not improved for the Indian senior team, which has failed to win a single medal at the Olympics, the World Cup or the Champions Trophy after Atlanta. Actually, after the 1972 Munich Olympics, it has only one bronze medal to show in the three majors, in the Champions Trophy.
India’s failure at Atlanta was a once again phenomenon. It led to lingering questions about player temperament and a culture of blaming someone else when things did not work. Coach D’ Souza lost his job and public confidence in the team lacerated. This has been a familiar trend. For a start, playing better teams in 2013 and 2014 has been good preparation for the World Cup. Hockey India’s success in bringing major tournaments to India has given the Indian team a chance to compete against the world’s best teams, which India could otherwise not have had, based on rankings. In the run up to the World Cup, India beat Olympic champions Germany in the World league finals in January, 2014, much as it had beaten the Netherlands in the pre-Olympics tournament in 1995. But a top six finish in the upcoming World Cup will depend upon the team’s mental preparation.
Jitendra Nath Misra is an Indian Foreign Service officer and currently India’s ambassador to Portugal. The views expressed in the essay are his own, not those of the government.