THE women's team left for the World Cup without even training once in their new saffron jerseys. It's understood that the men's team, scheduled to leave India on Friday, were able to train once -- on Thursday -- since the jersey unveiling inside the Sports Authority of India campus in Bengaluru earlier this week. This adds up to the latest controversy threatening to eat up the sport at a time when both teams ought to be finalising their structures and strategies with just weeks left for the FIH World Cup.
A year or so ago, when a conversation about the then-existing blue jersey came up, a few support staff had seemingly suggested that while there was nothing wrong with it, they were always receptive to the idea of trying something new. But this was, of course, very informal and at the very basic level. That conversation wasn't really followed up till the jersey unveiling happened at the SAI campus earlier this week.
When the teams need to concentrate more intensely on the work in hand, this creates another unnecessary layer to deal with ahead of the World Cup. Historically, both India teams have had issues with the quadrennial event; the men's team infamously bombed against New Zealand in a crossover match in Odisha before the quarterfinal stage in January 2023. Players like to get used to their jerseys, and these sorts of connections take time. They need multiple training sessions to understand if they sweat more and if it's a perfect fit or not.
To think that players from both teams may not even be familiar with the most basic of things ahead of the World Cup — their jerseys — is something unpardonable. It's why Dilip Tirkey, the president of Hockey India, used such strong words in both of his emails on Friday morning.
Men's team leaves for Switzerland for chemistry exercise
Both Craig Fulton and Paddy Upton are big fans of team bonding exercises just before big events. It's why, even as hockey continues to dominate the news cycle for the wrong reasons, the players themselves have quietly moved their base to Switzerland, where they will be based for the next 4-5 days.
This is all part of the prep, something Upton, the team's mental conditioning guru, is famous for. "We will be heading out to Switzerland," coach Fulton told this daily. "It's something similar in terms of location to what we did before Paris (Olympics).
"Everything is based on improving chemistry, trust and the connection of the group." One reason why Upton and Fulton -- the South African duo whose off-field ways have given the Indian team rich success over the last few years -- like doing this is that it's not always possible to do the same thing in camp in India when there are at least 28 players, so building that chemistry may be a bit difficult.
"We have something similar planned for the Asian Games as well. I mean, it's two very different projects and objectives. But, at the end of the day, we want to stand on the podium in both, so that's the plan."
The World Cup is scheduled to begin in the Netherlands and Belgium on August 15.
