For Harendra Singh, key to successful reign as India's men's hockey team coach lies in accepting inputs from players

Sundeep Misra

Optimism comes cheap. Or is it pessimism? For a sport that hangs by its own coattails, like a frayed, old shirt hanging on a nail on the wall, not knowing what will drop first, the nail or the shirt, Indian hockey lives on the border, each year a lesson in inconsistency and those fine, temporary eclectic moments like thundershowers on arid land. It’s no more a sport for the meek, player or coach, the unpredictability of winning and losing somehow seeping into the very character of both; especially the coach. Thirty-three have perished (since 1980) in trying to conjure the imagination, inventiveness and enterprise that could stitch together an Olympic or World Cup medal. Don’t count the years since 1980 our last Olympic Gold, or 1975, our last and only World Cup crown. Decades have been spent weaving dreams; the pessimistic calls it flights of fancy or delusion.

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