Sreejesh Ravindran over Sardar Singh: Hockey India's bold decision to secure team's future

A year ago Caravan magazine published a lengthy feature on India hockey player Sardar Singh pegged on a provocative question: Is Sardar Singh the last of India’s hockey greats? It was a time when the Indian team was struggling for form and Sardar was one of the few bright spots, but even then it was a strange question because Indian hockey already had at least one other world class player in goalkeeper Sreejesh Ravindran. Watch highlights or repeats of India matches over the last few years and you will Sreejesh come to India’s rescue time and again in goal, sometimes making multiple saves during the same attack. He has preserved victories, earned draws and fought valiantly in defeat to keep his team alive. He has excellent positional skills and sharp reflexes, which make it hard for opposing players to slot the ball past him. [caption id=“attachment_2891018” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Sreejesh Ravindran. Getty[/caption] His performances are inspiring to watch as a spectator. They must be even more so for the rest of the Indian players. To watch one of your own give everything he has for the sake of the team inevitably demands that the others do the same. When Sreejesh led India to silver at the Champions Trophy last month in the absence of Sardar, the first time ever that the men’s hockey team had made the final, it was confirmation that India did not have to rely on Sardar to lead the team. On Tuesday, Hockey India announced that Sreejesh would replace Sardar as captain of the Indian Hockey team less than a month before the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. It is the right decision given Sreejesh’s influence on the team’s performance and Sardar’s own struggles, including having to face rape allegations whose proceedings are currently in court in the UK. The move is also designed to revitalise India’s midfield maestro by reducing the burden on his shoulders. India coach Roeland Oltman said “the philosophy behind changing the captain is that we felt people need to take more responsibilities on the pitch and off the pitch. Sardar was taking too much responsibilities (sic) because of which he was not performing at the level that is expected of him. By changing the captain, I believe Sardar will play a much better Olympics.” Perhaps most importantly, this is the kind of big, bold decision we don’t see very often in Indian sports. In the Caravan article about Sardar, there is this telling quote from then Australia coach, and hockey legend, Ric Charlesworth, who had a brief and unhappy time coaching India as well. “He [Sardar] is very good. But you know”— Charlesworth paused and laughed the half-laugh again — “hockey is a team sport. There is an obsession in India about individuals in a team game. Your cricket team is too individual in nature, and so are the hockey players.” Sardar Singh is (or was) the biggest name in Indian hockey. Removing him as captain was always going to make headlines, especially so close to a major sporting event. It would have been very easy for the selectors to stick to the status quo and wait until after the Olympics to make a change, if at all. But they did what they thought would give the team the best chance of success regardless of individual reputation or past accomplishments. The same goes the selectors’ decision to drop now former India women’s captain Ritu Rani. It was Rani who led India to a bronze medal at the 2014 Asian Games and it was under her leadership that the team qualified for the Olympics for the time in 36 years. Yet these accomplishments were not enough to prevent the 24-year-old from being dropped because of a poor attitude and lack of match fitness. Once again, it was the future that counted for more than the past. All too often Indian sports across the spectrum have subsumed the collective in favour of the individual. This is to a large extent because individuals have tended to achieve more than the collective and focussing on the individual takes away some of the attention from the failure of the group. This is true not just of team sports in India, but also indvidual sports. But as long as that cycle continues, the success of the group remains a secondary concern. Against this history, Hockey India’s decisions represent a refreshing and encouraging departure. Let’s hope they also represent a turning point in Indian sport and don’t end up merely being a blip in the course of business as usual.