Michael Nobbs is rebuilding Indian hockey. But first, he had to destroy it
In the future, sports historians will mark February 26, 2012, as the day Indians rediscovered their national sport.
On that day, at the National Stadium, Delhi, the crowd was delirious, jumping, screaming for Sandeep and Sardara, Bharat and Sunil, as if they were Tendulkar or Dhoni. With every goal India scored against France, the excitement rose another notch. When the game ended, and India had qualified for the Olympics, the crowd was in sporting nirvana. A placard captured the mood: Cricket: Zero/Hockey: Hero.
A Licence to Kill
Ric Charlesworth lost this battle. He remembers putting together a list of 10 things he wanted the authorities to do. “Number one on the list was that everyone on the contract would get paid. We didn’t get to number two. It was impossible to get anyone to make a decision. No one knew where the money went.”
Nobbs’s attention, therefore, is now focussed on raising the team’s fitness levels.
‘Top Athletes Don’t Give Excuses’
(This story appears in the 27 April, 2012 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)