By IANS
New Delhi : After India’s shocking failure to make it to the Olympics, Ric Charlesworth, technical adviser to the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), said Monday he wanted to be in Chile to watch the team play but couldn’t go due to some miscommunication.
India failed to make it to the Beijing Olympics losing to Britain 0-2 Monday, which sent shockwaves throughout the country.
Charlesworth, an Australian hockey legend, who has been deputed by the International Hockey Federation as IHF adviser, said his presence in Santiago would not have changed the result, but he wanted to see the players perform.
“I wanted to go there and it was very frustrating not being able to do that. There were reasons and miscommunication that prevented me from going there,” said Charlesworth.
Charlesworth, who has also played cricket for Western Australia, gave India a 50-50 chance when he came to take up his assignment.
He said the IHF should learn from the loss and it should act as a catalyst for change.
“The IHF should start thinking of London Olympic Games now and chalk out a long-term sustainable policy for the team and not think of short-term measures the way it is done in India,” Charlesworth told NDTV.
As for his accepting the job of chief coach, he said he would only do so provided the administrators were willing to change.
“When I had discussed the matter the first time four years ago, I had pointed out to the IHF bosses the same thing.”
A pity, the world has learnt hockey from India and now the team is going through a rough trot, only someone from overseas can tell them where they were going wrong, he said.
“I accepted the offer of technical adviser expecting it to be a difficult and challenging assignment as I knew the bureaucratic and infrastructural problems in India will make it difficult.”
Apparently, Chief coach Joaquim Carvalho did not want the Australian breathing down his neck and wanted to go by his instincts and the strategy he chalked out.