hether a foreign professional or an Indian is appointed as the national hockey coach, what should be the rights of the coach? The following presents India's National Hockey Coach's Bill of Rights:

• TENURE : A fixed-duration tenure should be specified in the contract, along with a performance guarantee / performance bonus clause. Failure to meet specified targets could result in the coach's dismissal. Correspondingly, success in meeting the goals will results in a performance bonus to the coach.
  
  
• TERMINATION : A coach can only be fired in writing by the president of the IHF. There is no grey area like 'resting' for a couple of matches or an 'internal family matter' or saying "Dilli se call aaya hain". The IHF should have the guts to call a spade a spade. Only cowards beat around the bush.
  
  
• SALARY : The coach has to be paid a monthly salary for the full-time coaching job that is utilising his expertise. If the coach has to be fired before the contract expires, and if reason for the firing is not specified in the contract, the coach has to be paid a severance pay. This is to avoid ad hoc coaching terminations at the whims and fancies of the federation.
  
  
• SELECTION : The coach has to have complete freedom in selecting the team. A selection committee, comprising only Olympians or World Cuppers, can ADVISE the coach, who, however, is not bound by the recommendations of the selection committee.
  
  
• TOURNAMENTS : The coach will have a say in the tournaments and tours that the Indian team gets to participate in. The entire year's calendar, both domestic and international, should be planned in advance, with the coach giving his signed consent.
  
  
• FEDERATION : People with a primarily administrative role like the IHF president (K. P. S. Gill) and IHF secretary (Kandaswamy Jyothikumaran) should not be part of the selection committee. Neither are such people hockey experts, nor they should be under any such delusion.

Unless Gill and Jyothikumaran spell it out in a contract, only fools will take up the thankless job of India's national hockey coach. None of the great (and available) coaches in the world - Charlesworth, Terry Walsh, Kim Sang-Ryul, Jorritsma, etc. will accept such a demeaning and uncertain job as India's national coach.

If Chandru Kumar is indeed promoted, he has to have some self-respect and demand his rights as a hockey coach clearly spelt out. If he is a professional, he should act like one.

Graphic Courtesy The Times of India

edric and controversy go hand in hand. He is definitely a great theoretician - for instance he has come up with the following logic - "the abolition of the offside rule has permitted players to poach around the baselines, which in practice means that the ground has been elongated from 4500 square yards to 6000 square yards, which has resulted in a 33% increase in individual levels."

But when Cedric had a chance to put his theory into practice in a 6-nation tournament prior to the World Cup, he and the IHF declined to participate. This pre-World Cup warm up tournament featured 3 elite teams which had won 8 of the 9 World Cup tournaments held till then.

Netherlands came from half a world away for the same warm up tournament that India declined to go. The Japanese players paid their own airfare to come for that tournament. 5 of the 6 countries in the warm up tournament finished higher than India in the World Cup.

In his autobiography The Golden Hat Trick, Balbir Singh Sr. mentions that the 1975 World Cup winning team that he managed played 35 practice matches during the camp, against opponents such as Punjab Police, Border Security Force, Corps of Signals, Indian Air Force and Combined Universities (Punjab). Cedric failed to realise that top quality competition is an inseparable part of modern coaching.

Anyway, the Cedric controversy has got major exposure in the Indian sports media. Times News Network did a special feature on India's dismal performance at Kuala Lumpur. Some extracts:

Darryl Crasto, Sports Editor, Times of India - Come, Let's Play Hockey

So much was promised. But so little was delivered. It was a shame. It was a sham. The midstream sacking of chief coach Cedric D’Souza was coming, and quite rightly too. The man responsible for it tops it all by sending a fax from Mumbai to Kuala Lumpur thanking the media for its “continued support”!!

One thing is certain though. This team was not mentally prepared for an event of this magnitude. It was quite evident that the lads, save for a few seasoned campaigners, were in awe of the stage they were performing on.

This crucial factor made totally redundant the year-long training programme that the boys went through. The ‘concentration’ camps comprising blackboard brainstorming and videotaped therapy should have been replaced by a more practical approach. More competition with national sides prior to the World Cup as a build-up would have been much more useful.

The chief national coach Cedric D’Souza seemed to have a problem. A king-sized ego one is tempted to say. Discussing hockey with the legendary Paul Lissek over breakfast, lunch and dinner, and getting bouquets for his ‘‘indepth intelligence of modern hockey’’ by a group of foreign coaches, brought on a sense of being a Super Coach.

The boys were made to play a style that was quite contrary to what they were accustomed to. For instance, take Dhanraj Pillai. He is an out-and-out striker, all cunning and instinct, and the penalty area is the most preferred area in which he operates. He has the eye, the instinct to strike goals or set them up, like many can only dream about. Yet, in the initial matches we often saw him playing the role of a right winger.

Cedric D’Souza has promised a lot, right from the time he first took charge of the team in 1994 (Sydney World Cup) through 1996 (Atlanta Olympics). Then too, he had made tall promises. He did not deliver and was sacked. He returned last year, and once again gave the nation so much hope without revealing his hand. Yet again, he has failed to oblige.

Vineeta Pande - The Midnight Knock

After Cedric left and Kumar took over, the new coach had only one thing to say: “Play your natural game.” The boys were very happy with the new philosophy. Many of them had problems coping with Cedric’s gameplan, and even his behaviour.

They went out and thrashed Cuba in the evening. One day later, they beat Poland. They even gave Australia their toughest time. Suddenly, everybody was talking about India in a different tone.

A few players, however, were more than happy with Cedric’s departure. “Cedric is a man of strong likes and dislikes. His behaviour towards some players was very bad. He also had a bloated ego, and never took any adverse comment sportingly. He especially didn’t like certain players coming up with suggestions.

In the team meetings, most of the talking was done by Cedric. There was no room for questions or changes in his plans. A player said: “I was so scared of him that I used to get nervous by simply seeing him. He used to get very angry at even small things, and that made the situation worse. We ended up making more mistakes because of nervousness.”

Most of the players feel that C. R. Kumar is the better coach. And that’s because he doesn’t impose his ideas. “We played in a relaxed way under Kumar as we could play our natural game. In fact, he even asks for our suggestions and makes appropriate modifications," said a player.

"The best thing about Kumar is that he doesn’t have any favourites, he never humiliates anybody, and calmly tells players how to correct their mistakes.”

It looks like Cedric's career as a hockey coach is certainly over. At least with the Indian team.

he following conversation was recorded during a press conference at the Kuala Lumpur World Cup. Statutory Warning : going through this transcript will insult the intelligence of the reader. This must be the most inane exchange in any hockey press conference, ever.

• Secretary : We told Cedric D’Souza not to go. We wanted assistant coach C. R. Kumar to take over only for two matches. We just wanted Cedric to cool down.
  
  
• Media : But if you let C. R. Kumar coach, aren’t you giving away Cedric's responsibility to the assistant coach?
  
  
• Secretary : I am telling you again. Cedric is still the coach. We didn’t want him to leave. We only wanted him to cool down.
  
  
• Media : Do you believe a self-respecting individual like Cedric D’Souza will sit on the bench and advise his deputy C. R. Kumar, who will then coach the team
  
  
• Secretary : But that is not what I wanted. We want him to be the coach, but just cool down for some time.
  
  
• Media : Don’t you think this should have been done after the World Cup.
  
  
• Secretary : The coach asked for divine intervention after we lost our second match. We decided to give him the intervention and told him to relax and cool down. Look we have won today. We beat Cuba 4-0.
  
  
• Media : Are you trying to tell us that because you replaced Cedric with C. R. Kumar, India beat Cuba 4-0? Even with you as the coach, sir, we would have beaten Cuba 4-0.
  
  
• Secretary : But we wanted Cedric to continue as the coach. We tried to tell him to relax and cool down. But he didn’t listen.

Federation secretaries can come and go. They are inconsequential and expendable, as the conversation above shows. They don't bring any special skills for the job; you can get such secretaries a dime a dozen.

But IHF president K. P. S. Gill has to do some introspection. India, under his stewardship, finished 9th in the 1998 World Cup, 7th in the 2000 Sydney Olympics and 10th in the 2002 World Cup.

Does Gill believe in moral responsibility, namely that if one can take credit for a team's success, one should also take the blame for a team's disgrace? Does the word 'accountability' mean anything to him - collective accountability, not just making a scapegoat of an individual coach? 

For the everlasting good of Indian hockey, if that is indeed dear to his heart, Gill should rise above his selfish desire to stay in power and step down.

ports Minister Uma Bharati has directed her ministry to look into India's debacle in the Kuala Lumpur World, and prepare a report so that necessary action could be taken.

"India's showing in the World Cup has left a lot to be desired. I have always maintained that every authority has to be accountable. I can assure you that Haathi ki galti ke liye chuhe ko saza nahin milegee (for the misdeeds of the big, the small will not be punished)," she said.

Bharati said that the task of bringing those responsible to book would not be easy as success has many fathers but failure is nobody's child. "No one will own up for what happened there."

Meanwhile, government observer Syed Jalaluddin Rizvi has lambasted former coach Cedric D'Souza and ridiculed his coaching strategy.

"When I pointed out to Cedric that the team had no wingers, he said that all our players are capable of playing at any position, and there is no need for a specialist winger. I don’t know what kind of strategy that is.

The other perplexing thing about this team is that they have not had enough practice matches. By playing practice matches, we can judge at what level a player stands. But the coach skipped practice matches, saying that our strategy will be exposed.

Indian players are used to playing the traditional Indian style of hockey, how they can suddenly change their style of playing. Cedric is more into foreign coaching which is not easy for our players to digest. Pakistan still plays the traditional style of hockey, and is doing very well internationally.

This issue will definitely come up in Parliament and I may be even be called to give my explanations. As a government observer, my recommendation is that Cedric D’Souza should not be given the responsibility of coaching the national team in the future."

xcerpts from a hard-hitting interview of former hockey coach, Horst Wein, by Anand Philar of Khel.com.

Can you tell me when was the last time India reached the semifinals of the Olympics or the World Cup. Not in the last 20 years. This statistic says it all about your standards. The world is changing, other countries are keeping pace, but Indian hockey has been stagnant for the past two decades...

The IHF should prepare a development plan and work on it. Not simply talk about it. Look 20 years ahead and not just two or four. The IHF does not do any long-term planning. It prepares the team from one tournament to the next...

You play, you lose, then you complain and forget. The IHF sacks the players and the coach. That is no solution to your problems. Get down to grassroots levels. Take boys who are in schools. Teach them when they are young, they will understand and absorb concepts better than when they are in their 20s...

Look at other countries. They all have long-term plans and goals. You will say that the Germans are the World champions. But you forget that these boys are products of our system. Germany won four Junior World Cups before winning the senior World Cup ...

The IHF should hurry up. India is already way behind. Forget the politics. India has plenty of hockey talent, but there is no direction. The players do not know how to make use of their talent. So, either you catch up with the rest of the world or remain where you are. The choice is India's ...

Will I be interested in being the National Hockey Coach of India? You must be joking.

Captain Florian Kunz (l) and and coach Bernhard Peters with the World Cup
Photograph by Stanley Chou / Getty Images

he 10th men's World Cup was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from February 24 to March 9, 2002. For India, it was a disastrous World Cup which saw it finishing 10th of 16 teams.

The coach, Cedric D'Souza, was unceremoniously sacked midway during the World Cup, while IHF president (K. P. S. Gill) and the ubiquitous secretary (Kandaswami Jyothikumaran) held on to their posts without a modicum of shame.

India's match results were as follows:

Stage	Date	Matchup	Goal Scorers (India)
League	Feb 24	India 2 - Japan 2	Dhanraj Pillai (40 m, PC) Deepak Thakur (46 m)
	Feb 26	Korea 2 - India 1	Jugraj Singh (70 m)
	Feb 27	Malaysia 3 - India 2	Daljeet Dhillon (52 m) Prabhjyot Singh (57 m)
	Mar 1	England 3 - India 2	Dileep Tirkey (42 m) Baljeet Dhillon (57 m)
	Mar 2	India 4 - Cuba 0	Dileep Tirkey (9 m) Daljeet Dhillon (14 m) Deepak Thakur (16 m) Baljeet Dhillon (52 m)
	Mar 4	India 4 - Poland 1	Daljeet Dhillon (5 m) Baljeet Dhillon (16 m) Prabhjyot Singh (26 m) Dhanraj Pillai (68 m)
	Mar 5	Australia 4 - India 3	Jugraj Singh (19 m) Daljeet Dhillon (43 m) Prabhjyot Singh (67 m)
9/12 Placings	Mar 7	India 3 - Spain 0	Baljeet Dhillon (6 m) Jugraj Singh (19 m) Deepak Thakur (27 m)
9/10 Placings	Mar 8	New Zealand 2 - India 1	Deepak Thakur (10 m)

Germany won the World Cup beating Australia 2-1 in the final. This was Germany's first World Championship in 9 consecutive appearances in the World Cup semi-finals.

Wild scenes of excitement greeted the final hooter. Sascha Reinelt and Oliver Domke climbed onto the goals and punched the air. The team members exchanged hugs on the carpet of the pitch in midfield. Then they held hands and formed a straight line facing their fans. After a short sprint, they dived, and slid towards the sideline as the crowd cheered them to a deafening roar.

German captain Florian Kunz got the Man of the Final award, while Troy Elder was declared the Player of the Tournament. Penalty corner specialists Sohail Abbas of Pakistan and Jorge Lombi of Argentina were the joint top-scorers of the tournament with 10 goals apiece. South Africa won the Fairplay Trophy.

The final positions : 1. Germany; 2. Australia; 3. Netherlands; 4. South Korea; 5. Pakistan; 6. Argentina; 7. England; 8. Malaysia; 9. New Zealand; 10. India; 11. Spain; 12. Japan; 13. South Africa; 14. Belgium; 15. Poland; 16. Cuba.

The Indian team was as follows:

Goalkeepers: Jude Menezes, Devesh Chauhan

Defenders: Dileep Tirkey, Lajarus Barla, Kanwalpreet Singh, Jugraj Singh

Midfielders: Sukhbir Singh Gill, Ignace Tirkey, Selvaraj Thirumalvalavan, Arjun Halappa, Baljeet Singh Saini

Forwards: Dhanraj Pillai, Sabu Varkey, Baljit Singh Dhillon (captain), Daljeet Singh Dhillon, Deepak Thakur, Prabhjyot Singh, Bipin Fernandez

Chief Coach : Cedric D'Souza (replaced by assistant coach C. R. Kumar after 4 matches)

hree cheers for Sportstar for showing its true colours. 10 sportsmen graced the cover of Sportstar in March. All 10 were cricketers. 5 sportsmen were featured as the star posters in March. 4 of the 5 were cricketers. Sportstar has succeeded in equating sports with cricket.

In the month of the World Cup in hockey, India's national game, it has not seen fit to devote even a single cover or poster to the world championship. Instead, this so-called sports magazine reeks of cricket from front cover to back, as seen below:

Date	Mar 2 - Mar 8	Mar 9 - Mar 15	Mar 16 - Mar 22	Mar 23 - Mar 29	Mar 30 - Apr 5
Cover	Sachin/Viv	Bangar/Gilchrist	Harbhajan/Saurav	Mark/Steve Waugh	Thorpe/Astle
Poster	Ricky Ponting	Glenn McGrath	Nathan Astle	Kumar Sangakkara	Schumacher

The difference between the run-of-the-mill Sportstar and a classy sports weekly Sports Illustrated can be seen as in their covers.

.

Sports Illustrated has entire cover galleries on basketball (Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan), boxing (Mohammad Ali, Sugar Ray), ice hockey (Wayne Gretzky), baseball (Mark McGwire, Cal Ripken), golf (Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods), and a host of other athletes from different sports.

The magazine sports covers have become so popular that cnnsi.com has started the 'Guess This Week's Cover' contest. Sports fans test their knowledge of current sports events by picking correctly who would make it to the cover of Sports Illustrated each week.

When was the last time an Indian sportswoman was featured on the cover of Sportstar? How about an Indian junior sports prospect? This year features World Cup Hockey (February), the Commonwealth Games (July) and the Asian Games (September). Going by its past sorry record, Sportstar will feature none of these events on its cover, because they have nothing to do with cricket, only everything to do with sports

Sportstar should stop calling itself a 'sports' magazine. Why beat around the bush - it is 90% cricket, with events like the World Cup in Hockey getting a column called 'snippets'. India's non-cricket sports deserve better than snippets for their world championships.

An simple example of Sportstar's gutter vision follows. On March 24, Railways won the National Women's Hockey Championship for the 18th time in a row. Having won continuously since 1980, no other Indian team in no other sport can claim such dominance of their sport. The Senior Women's Nationals were not even held last year due to lack of any sponsors, and would have suffered the same fate this year had not Coca Cola stepped in.

That's the background. In the March 30 issue of Sportstar, there is an article headlined "Railways Achievement is Spectacular". It turns out to be an article on Railways winning the Ranji Trophy in cricket! The writer called it "a victory in the Lagaan mould, a tale of pure will, raw courage and sturdy determination."

Sportstar will for ever remain a poor country bumpkin of international sports journalism, due to its single minded obsession with one game - cricket.

The Dhyan Chand Stadium in Delhi

ndia honoured the memory of hockey wizard Dhyan Chand by renaming National Stadium in Delhi after him. At a simple function in Delhi, Home Minister L. K. Advani unveiled a plaque naming the stadium after the legend.

Hockey Wizard Dhyan Chand was part of three gold medal-winning Indian teams in the Olympics - Amsterdam (1928), Los Angeles (1932) and Berlin (1936), where he was the captain.

Hinting at a lack of ambition among Indian sportspersons, Advani recalled the stirring deeds of Dhyan Chand and expressed hope that the country's youth would be inspired by them.

He also urged the sporting youth not to be content with mediocre performances, quoting a Hindi poet's words during an Olympic Games: "Kuch ko sona chahiye, kuch ko chandi, our kuch ko kansya; Hum Bharatvasi hain, hum ko kuch nahin chahiye (some want gold, some want silver, some want bronze; we are Indians, we don't want anything).

The initiative to rename the stadium came from Sports Minister Uma Bharati, who said that the thought occurred to her when she first saw Dhyan Chand's statue at the stadium's entrance. The stadium, which was built in 1933 by A. S. DeMello, was originally known as Irwin Amphitheatre, before being renamed National Stadium after Independence.

This historic venue hosted all disciplines of the inaugural Asian Games in 1951. From a multi-purpose venue, it was converted into a hockey stadium for the 9th Asian Games in 1982. The first astro-turf of the country was laid at National Stadium.

The function was attended by Dhyan Chand's family members, including the legend's son Ashok Kumar. Also present were Olympians Nandi Singh, R. S. Bhola, Harmeek Singh, M. P. Ganesh, M. K. Kaushik, Ashok Diwan and Zafar Iqbal.

Railways striker Pritam Rani Siwach scoring against Chandigarh
Photograph Courtesy Sandeep Saksena of The Hindu

he Coca Cola 51st Senior Women's National Hockey Championship took place at the Surjit Singh Stadium at Burlton Park, Jalandhar, from March 18 to March 24.

The event could not be held in 2000 due to the lack of sponsors. This year, Coca Cola and Save Hockey (an association of former players) pooled in funds for conduct of the Nationals. Three cheers to Coca Cola for not ignoring the vast world of non-cricketing Indian sports.

14 teams participated in the tournament. Defending champion Railways and runners up Haryana got automatic entries into the tournament, while the other teams qualified through six zonal tournaments held earlier this year, at Jalandhar, Lucknow, Bangalore, Patna, Mumbai and Jabalpur. The top two teams from each zone made it to the nationals.

17-times winner Railways and 10-times winner Punjab made it to the final, with the following match results:

Date	Railways	Punjab
March 18	beat Chandigarh 3-0
March 19		beat Manipur 10-0
March 20	beat Jharkhand
March 21	beat Karnataka 9-0	beat Delhi 6-0
Mar 23 (semis)	beat Mumbai 4-0	beat Haryana 2-1

In the final held on March 24, Railways crushed Punjab 6-0 to win the National Hockey Championship for the 18th time in a row. In this one-sided encounter, Railways got 10 penalty-corners, two of which were converted while two resulted in penalty strokes which were also converted. On the other hand, Punjab could manage just 2 penalty-corners. In the playoff for the third place, Haryana survived a scare against Mumbai before winning 3-2.

This was the 7th time Punjab has lost to Railways in the final of the women's national hockey championship. Since their debut in 1980, all 18 national championships have been won by the Railways.

Jyoti Sunita Kullu scored 9 goals in 5 matches to end up as the top scorer of the championship. Railways was coached by Ashok Diwan. Doordarshan Sports and Akashvani provided live coverage of the semi finals and final.

he game of musical chairs has finally ended. The FIH has confirmed that the 3-game playoff between India and USA for the final spot in November's Women’s World Cup in Perth, Australia, will take place in Delhi from June 3 - June 6, 2002.

The FIH consulted with the US Embassy in New Delhi, which confirmed that there is currently no advisory for US citizens against travel to Delhi.

June will mark 9 months after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US. Thank God the FIH is convinced that India is a safe place to play 3 matches over 4 days in June. So what if Zimbabwe and the English cricket teams have spent WEEKS in India without incident.

Gee, it is hard to be a parent of any of the US players involved in this playoff. So far they would have bought / cancelled air tickets and made / cancelled hotel bookings in New Delhi (India), Johannesburg (South Africa), Brussels (Belgium) and Manchester (England) before going back to the original choice - New Delhi, India, as per the original agreement with the FIH.

At some point in this circus, India put its foot down and told the FIH to stop abusing its privilege and dictating to them when it is safe to play in India. The federation now needs to say to the FIH - one more change and the series would forfeit to India by default.

In the interests of economy, USA needs to make reservations as early as possible and this constant change is costing the USA money. The US can no longer afford to make and break reservations. The cost of any further changes of venue should rest squarely on the FIH.

he only Asian country to have a National Hockey League is Malaysia. It is no wonder that Indian and Pakistani stars flock to Malaysia to offer their services on a professional basis.

In the Malaysian Hockey League that starts on March 23, Indian superstar Dhanraj Pillai will represent Arthur Andersen Sports Club, and will be joined by penalty corner specialist Len Ayyappa. Their other teammates in the club will include forward Mirnawan Nawawi, half-back S. Shankar and full-back Maninderjit Singh.

Arthur Andersen had finished 6th in the 9-team league in their debut season in 2000. Arthur Andersen is being coached by K. Dharmaraj.

From across the border in Pakistan, 26-year old Sohail Abbas and 22-year old Kashif Jawwad have signed to play for Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN), which was the team with whom Pillai had played in 2000.

Sohail will miss the first few matches for BSN, as he has to wrap up prior work commitments in Pakistan, including participation in Pakistan's national hockey championship. However, the Malaysians are willing to wait for Sohail, the top scorer of the Kuala Lumpur World Cup. Malaysian national coach Paul Lissek is particularly interested in Sohail.

"I will be approaching him about the possibility of including him in the weekly national training so that we can learn more about his style in executing penalty corners," said Lissek.

The foreign players get a professional fee, and free accommodation is being provided to them. The players have been signed for a period of 3 months.

Photograph Courtesy : Stan Salazaar's Hockey Library

he Photograph of the Month for April features the victorious 1952 Indian Olympic hockey team. Hoisted on his teammates' shoulders is captain K. D. Singh 'Babu'. He won the Helms Award in 1952 as the world's best amateur sportsman.

he English Hockey Association (EHA) will lay off up to 15 people in a restructuring programme to cut spiralling debts. Regional academies are being halved from 10 to 5. EHA had losses of around £750,000 over the past two years.

EHA has signed a contract with the FIH to host a joint men's and women's Champions Trophy in 2003. The EHA has so far secured £185,000 of Lottery funding from Sport England for the tournament, in addition to raising £15,000 of sponsorship. Considering that this amount was still short of the likely final cost, and with the EHA facing bankruptcy, the tournament seemed set to go elsewhere.

EHA president Mike Corby stepped in at this stage and pledged £30,000 of his own money to ensure the 2003 Champions' Trophy will take place in Milton Keynes, England.

Across the border, the Scottish Hockey Union (SHU) lost over £50,000 in staging the July 2001 World Cup Qualifier at Edinburgh. The loss was due to lower than expected spectator turnout, low overseas television sales, and the collapse of one of the tournament's sponsorship deals.

The 16-nation World Cup qualifier was the biggest ever hockey event to be held in Scotland. With some 500 competitors and officials in residence, the event is thought to have contributed over £1 million to the Edinburgh economy.

But, except on the final day, the anticipated 1,000 spectators a day failed to materialise. That, along with a £6,000 sponsor (Goodwin Travel) backing off, and lower-than-expected television sales contributed to the losses.

The SHU, which converted to a limited company three years ago, is seeking 5-year interest-free loans of £500, £750 or £1,000 to help them climb out of the financial mess.

ockey stars of yesteryear were seen in the media box of the Kuala Lumpur World Cup. This galaxy of players was headed by the captain of the 1975 World Cup winning team, Ajitpal Singh.

Olympians Vasudevan Bhaskaran, Jagbir Singh and Ashish Ballal, and international Harendra Singh represented various Indian newspapers. There were a handful of former Pakistan stars too, including Samiullah, Shahnaz and Islahuddin. Islahuddin was commentating for PTV. The Australian media was represented by playing and coaching legend Ric Charlesworth.

Suresh Dixit is this edition's Visitor of the Month. Suresh, who attended the 10th World Cup in Kuala Lumpur, writes:

I am a freelance writer and journalist, originally from Jhansi - the land of the Wizard Dhyan Chand. I was close to Shri Dhyan Chand during the last ten years of his life. I feel honoured to have known him and have his blessings.

I have a treasured photograph with him where I am interviewing him. I have contributed his interview to Sapthahik Hindustan, the national Hindi weekly of the Hindustan Times group.

I have written articles for Dharmayug, the Hindi weekly of the Times of India group, Khel Khiladi, Dinaman and Sportsweek, way back from 1975 to 1986.

Unfortunately, no major Hindi magazines are now being published. Indian language writers have to contribute to newspapers though their readership is very short lived, i.e., for one day only.

Presently, I am contributing to Punjab Kesari, Rajasthan Patrika, Dainik Jagran, Swatantra Bharat (Lucknow), Dainik Bhaskar (Madhya Pradesh) and Sanmarg (Kolkata).

Though I mainly write for Hindi newspapers, I have also contributed to English publications like The Times Of India, Hindustan Times and World Hockey (London).

I have covered the World Cup (Utrecht-1998), Asian Games (Bangkok-1998), Olympics (Sydney-2000) and World Cup (Kuala Lumpur-2002).

If I could get a sponsor, I am determined to cover this year's Champions Trophy (August) and the Asian Games (September).

ermany has the astounding record of having reached the World Cup semi-finals the last NINE times in a row - from 1973 to 2002. In contrast, India has failed to reach the World Cup semi-finals the last SEVEN times in a row. This one statistic tells the difference between superpower Germany and a pretender like India.

The FIH Player of the Year award for 2001 went to Florian Kunz of Germany. The FIH Junior Player of the Year award for 2001 went to Tibor Weisenborn of Germany. No Indian was even nominated for the two awards.

The current European Champions, World Cup winners and Champions Trophy holders Germany, which has won 41 out of 44 internationals under its coach Bernhard Peters, is the undisputed king of modern hockey.

India, which has not reached even the semi-finals of the Olympics or the World Cup for the past 20 years, is a third world country of hockey, administered by third-class bureaucrats.