Four-Nation tournament, Spain

[Saffron Lenin]

Hockey India names 24-member men’s squad for Four-Nation tournament in Spain

Defender Harmanpreet Singh to captain the squad along with the experienced midfielder Hardik Singh as vice captain in the 100th Anniversary Spanish Hockey Federation - International Tournament from July 25 to 30.

India will play against England, Netherlands, and hosts Spain in the four-nation tournament which will serve as the preparatory event for the Indian team ahead of the much-awaited Asian Champions Trophy 2023, which will be followed by the crucial Hangzhou Asian Games 2023.

[Saffron Lenin]

Squad:

Goalkepers: Sreejesh Parattu Raveendran. Krishan Bahadur Pathak

Defenders: Jarmanpreet Singh, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Manpreet Singh, Amit Rohidas, Harmanpreet Singh, Varun Kumar, Sanjay

Midfielders: Hardik Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Sumit, Nilakanta Sharma, Shamsher Singh, Rajkumar Pal

Forwards: Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Mandeep Singh, Gurjant Singh, Sukhjeet Singh, Abhishek, Pawan, Dilpreet Singh, Simranjeet Singh, Karthi Selvam.

https://www.firstpost.com/sports/hockey ... 40612.html

[Saffron Lenin]

Men's hockey trying to discover 'new Indian way' to do things better, says coach Craig Fulton

The national men’s hockey team is in a “discovery phase” to find the “new Indian way” of doing things in a better way, chief coach Craig Fulton said on Friday.

The South African also said the appointment of compatriot and mental conditioning expert Paddy Upton will help the side find its voice rather than rely on instructions by others.
Enquired about what this new Indian way is, Fulton, who replaced Australia Graham Reid, said, “It’s a discovery phase, we are on a real trajectory. The work previously done by Graham put the team on the map with consistent performance with one or two disappointments on the way.”
“Now we are trying to keep that trajectory but then how do we improve what has already been done and that starts individually before it goes collectively.” However, Fulton wants the team to find its voice.

https://www.firstpost.com/sports/hockey ... 40612.html

[prasen9]

Basically, a bunch of B.S. That may be by design because he does not want to give out what exactly he is doing. But, the article says pretty much nothin g except that he is trying to adjust to the Indian culture. Adapting all methods to the local culture is a good idea in principle. The real crux is how you do it and what exactly you are doing. It seems like he does not know what exactly needs to be done but is trying to do something along those lines. Or he does not want to spell it out because perhaps of local political reasons or adversarial reasons.

[PKBasu]

A South African coaching Indians in hockey?? Sounds like a very bad joke. When did SA learn to play decent hockey?

[prasen9]

He was the assistant coach for Belgium when they won a bunch at the Olympics, etc. I have no problems with him.

[Saffron Lenin]

A South African coaching Indians in hockey?? Sounds like a very bad joke. When did SA learn to play decent hockey?

South African has coached NZ hockey, Australia hockey, GB hockey....South Africa doesnt perform great internationally because sa hockey federation do not pay them well...otherwise, they are decently good!!!!

[Saffron Lenin]

A South African coaching Indians in hockey?? Sounds like a very bad joke. When did SA learn to play decent hockey?

Greg Nicol (born 2 April 1975) is a South African former field hockey player who competed in the 1996 Summer Olympics and in the 2004 Summer Olympics.[1] On 23 December 2021 he was announced as the new head coach of the New Zealand men's national team
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Nicol

Paul Revington was appointed Head Coach of the England and Great Britain men’s teams in April 2022.
https://www.englandhockey.co.uk/interna ... -revington

Australia had an South African coach few years back.....i can't recall his name!!!

[Saffron Lenin]

Many people don't know that South Africa has won fih nations cup to qualify for fih pro league but their federation didn't have money to give entry fee!!! They even don't pay their national team players (as far as I know) .... They are just cheap replica of Pakistan hockey federation: Totally corrupt and incompetent, but their players are good so you will see South Africans doing coaching all over the world. Even Malaysia had South African coach few years back!!!

[prasen9]

We should not judge an individual or give them a job or not based on their country and narrow parochialism. That is discrimination. In this case, I am giving the benefit of doubt in that he was the assistand coach for a great Belgium team. He possibly knows about modern coaching methods, motivation, preparation, a bit of politics, etc. - the essentials for being a good coach. Whether he will succeed here or not, we will see. But, he is a reasonable choice. I do not know who else was considered and put their hat in either. Maybe he was the best available choice. In that, I do not have any information that there was a better choice who was not given the job. So, it is fine with me.

[srini]

We shouldn't be opinionated and discriminate a South African coaching Indian team. At the same time we should also deplore the situation being one among the few elite nations in Hockey not being able to find home grown coach. I tried to look up who all are coaching elite hockey national sides.

Netherlands is currently world ranked 1. Jeroen Delmee a Dutch player has been coaching Netherlands from 2021.
Danny Kerry, a British national coached 3rd ranked Britain side for 17 years, now replaced interim by Zak Jones a Welsh.
André Henning a German national is the head coach of 5th ranked Germany.
Ric Charlesworth an Australian coached its national team from 2009 to 2014 and current coach Colin Batch also an Australian is coaching the team from 2017.
Maximiliano Caldas coaching Spanish side is born in Argentina but i would ascribe that to his native language being Spanish.
Mariano Ronconi coaching Argentine side is a national i believe.

Michel van den Heuvel seems the only exception, a Dutch coaching the Belgium national team.

Coming to Indians having the resume that fits the billl, Harendra singh seems to be the only Indian coaching a foreign national hockey team at highest level, the US national team. I wish we had a more conducive domestic setup where more Indian former Indian hockey players can be harnessed as coaches. We just can't be hiring any Indian player without first being proven in a domestic league setup. That's why i am looking forward to revival of Hockey India League...It not only provides a pipe line of young talented players but also sets stage for coaches to prove their mettle before being called for national duty.

[Saffron Lenin]

International Tournament 2023 schedule and live match start times
All in Indian Standard Time (IST)

Torneo del Centenario hockey 2023 men’s schedule
July 25, Tuesday: India vs Spain - 11:30 PM
July 26, Wednesday: India vs Netherlands - 9:30 PM
July 28, Friday: India vs England - 4:30 PM
July 30, Sunday: 3/4 playoff match (If India qualify) - 4:30 PM IST
July 30, Sunday: Final (If India qualify) - 4:30 PM IST

https://olympics.com/en/news/100th-anni ... 3-schedule

[Saffron Lenin]

India vs Spain at 11:30 pm.....a late night show

[Saffron Lenin]

Spain defeated India 2-1

[prasen9]

I agree with you Srini. It is just that we used to be dogmatic about choosing Indian Olympians of old as coaches and that was a disaster since we never moved along to modern hockey. By now, we have a lot of ex hockey players who have been brought up with modern hockey or should know how to coach a team. They need exposure and to prove themselves as you said. Some are going to be good and some bad. We need to find out who.