'India should have retained some previous staff members': Harendra Singh's World Cup post-mortem

Bhubaneswar: The early exit of Indian hockey team from Hockey World Cup disheartened the fans across the country. But it was even more heartbreaking for the person who had trained the core group of players who were on the pitch.

"I expected much from the team but this is disheartening to get out this early in a home World Cup. The whole country is disheartened but the we have to move on from this and focus on the upcoming Asian Games," a distraught Harendra Singh told The Bridge.

"But I think we should focus on the process more. The management needs to avoid extreme decision like sacking of coach and players altogether," Harendra added further, referring to the resignation of Indian coach Graham Reid in the immediate aftermath of the 9th-place finish.

After India's early exit, Australian coach Graham Reid and his supporting staff resigned and Hockey India acknowledged that the Indian hockey team will now take a new path, with less than two years left before the next Olympics.

Popularly known as Harry, the former Indian coach was in Odisha for the Hockey World Cup. On the sidelines of the WC, he was teaching coaches under the FIH Coaching masterclass.

"The most important part is that the players and management should regroup and focus on the upcoming Asian Games with Olympics qualification in sight. That is most important," Harendra underlined the importance of this year.

The first full-time Indian coach of Indian hockey team since 2008, Harendra has worked with every age-group of Indian hockey and won the Junior hockey world in 2016 with the likes of Harmanpreet Singh, Krishan Pathak, Mandeep Singh, Varun Kumar, Nilakanta Sharma and many more, who are now part of this senior team.

The debate around the Mental Coach

A statement by Graham Reid after the exit of not having a mental coach has sparked a debate.

Commenting on the same, Harendra said, "We had mental coaches and coaches who have worked with this group. Mental conditioning coach at SAI Bengaluru, Priyanka Prabhakar, has worked with this group and they should have used her."

Priyanka Prabhakar has been helping Indian hockey since 2015 and has been widely credited in strengthening the women's team especially.

Harendra added: "Nothing will happen in the last one week (before a tournament). If we have to focus on mental conditioning, we need to give them the longer rope and work with players in long term."

With Graham Reid gone now, it will be interesting to see if the new coach will be given a mental conditioning coach and a longer rope.

Coaching at Grassroots

One of the most renowned coaches and current coach of USA Men's Hockey team, Harendra has more than two decades of experience in coaching and was awarded Dronacharya Award in 2012.

"I think we have quality players at younger level but I think somewhere we lack on the grassroots level in terms of coaching and the atmosphere. Coaches focus on skills but you need to look at much more than that," Harendra said.

With the franchise leagues such as Hockey India League and PHL going obsolete, the Indian players and younger players miss out on regular high quality of Hockey. The basic foundation of European Hockey's success has been in the strong culture of club hockey, an aspect where India has fallen behind.

"The Hockey India League was a big hit for Indian hockey. Players like Harmanpreet Singh, Varun Kumar and many others got to experience the high-quality hockey and it showed in their performance. The younger players don't have that exposure. I don't know if HIL will return but it comes back, it will help Indian hockey," Harendra said.

Road Ahead for Indian Hockey

"India messed up by not retaining the previous components of success of Indian hockey - Wayne Lombard and Robin Akrell. I have worked with them and they are too good. They are the best in the business," Harendra said about India's failure of retaining the strength and conditioning coaches from Tokyo Olympics.

Harendra Singh is coaching the USA Men's Hockey team and he is also overseeing the grassroots development of the country.

Talking about the challenges in USA, he said, "Indian players have everything. No other country provides this much of facilities as India does. For example in USA, there is no culture and history. We have to do everything from scratch."

"Will you come back as the coach?" Harendra Singh laughed off this question and said, "I have no idea but I would love to come back with a longer rope."