We need patience, we need to build this team and we need to have stability, asserts Graham Reid
Graham Reid has stated that there is a need of being patient and having stability in order to build the Indian team. The Australian also mentioned that the way, in which the Indians, Dutch and Australians play, it’s like a triangle and in its centre, there is the perfect way of playing the game.
Ever since the exit of Harendra Singh from the senior Indian hockey team, the post of the chief coach was vacant till Graham Reid took the charge of the side in April this year. The ongoing FIH Series Finals is the first major assignment for him and the bigger challenge is to take the Indian side into the Tokyo Olympics next year. With Hockey India mostly going with the formula of hiring a new coach before a major event and then firing him after a poor show, Reid was asked whether he was worried about the same.
“If I was worried about it, I wouldn’t take the job. We need patience, we need to build this team and we need to have stability. That’s the only message I can send out to whoever will listen” Reid told TOI.
“Over the past decade, every year I’ve spent an average of 4-6 weeks in India. So, I was pretty comfortable and confident about the fact that I knew a fair bit about the Indian culture. Since I was with two Hockey India League teams, I knew many of the players fairly well.”
Before joining the Indian side, Reid was coaching in the Netherlands and he had also coached the Australian national side. Reid is an experienced coach and had played the sport at the highest level as well. He has a proper understanding about the game and stated that the perfect way of playing the sport is somewhere in between the style of hockey played by the Indians, the Dutchmen, and the Aussies.
“It’s been fantastic. In each of the country the players have different skills. I don’t think one is necessarily better than the other, but they are different. I see somewhere in the way the Indians, Dutch and the Australians play, there is a triangle and in the middle of that triangle is the perfect way of playing. That’s something I would like to work on more and find out how to do that with the Indian flavor,” the coach explained.
When asked about the major challenge he is facing in India, Reid said, “It is difficult to get your message across in a different language. That was probably one of the major things I was concerned about when I applied for the job and I still get concerned sometimes. You think the players have understood what you have said, you assume that rather than knowing it. So, it is important that they are getting the message from different sources. When Manpreet (Singh) talks, I really make sure what I am trying to convey. He, in turn, ensures it is interpreted properly to them. One or two coaches also do the job.”
The next Olympics in Tokyo will be played in another 13 months or so and this makes the job of the coach even more difficult because of the time constraints. He now has to build a proper team for the upcoming sporting extravaganza with a limited period of time in his hand and also the qualification scenarios in his mind.
“I won’t lie, it is difficult but I believe in controlling the controllable. Also with the funding model we have from SAI, we have to plan ahead. There is a fair bit of what we have currently planned which we can’t tinker with much. But we can spend time worrying about it or make the best use of what we have. Pro League has also come in later in the planning so, we are chalking out the plans. We will have a review after the tournament to put in place what our next 12 months looks like and what we need to do. Once we have the review we will be in a better position,” Reid stated,
“The next 33 players that come into the camp in July will be very close to the group we will take forward. There is also a very nice group of youngsters who are in the junior side training with Jude Felix. I’m coordinating with him. In the first few weeks I was there I saw them play, there are some good and exciting talent.”
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