NEW DELHI, Dec 18: The appointment of junior national coach Vasudevan Baskaran as the hockey manager of the senior team is another reminder of the ad hoc manner in which the Indian Hockey Federation functions. The newly created post of hockey manager is shrouded in ambiguity and seems to be an exercise that could lead to a fresh round of controversies.

The Federation thus has been forced to resort to this stop-gap measure to accomodate a succesful coach in the larger scheme of things. But the sagacity of this decision is questionable. The Federation apparently, has become a victim of its own policies, and of unforeseen circumstances, as in this case.

Rather than opt for a system whereby coaches can get a long tenure with the team, every failure has forced knee-jerk reactions from the Federation the sack becoming an inevitable weapon of reprisal. Baskaran, who should have been persevered with, was demoted after the Indians failed to perform at the Champions Trophy in December last. He went back to the junior squad, preparing them for the World Cup.

Meanwhile, the Federation opted for the former captain Pargat Singh -- who quit playing after the Champions Trophy as the senior national coach.

However, the Indian juniors' silver-medal finish at Milton Keynes brought Baskaran back into limelight, putting IHF into a quandary at the same time. The solution: Bring back Baskaran into the senior side in a role which asks for ``assisting Pargat Singh with the team''.

However, what the new job demands for Baskaran is not clear. A manager's role calls for looking after the team discipline, taking care of their accommodation, tickets and such sundry matters. Is Baskaran expected to do the same?

If yes, then they have found a wrong guy, for Baskaran is a technical man. If not, then there is bound to be a clash of opinions when two coaches with different ideas get together. For, it cannot be denied that both the former captains are head-strong people with their own agendas for building a solid team. In such a case, the team would obviously suffer.

Moreover, the Federation has also not spelt out the ambit of the new post.

To what extent is Baskaran expected to help out Pargat? And what about Pargat? Does he want the help, or he would prefer to have a free hand with the team?

Such questions will remain unanswered for the time being, for Pargat would like to be non-committal on the whole issue, and so would Baskaran.

The Federation's idea of coming to such a compromise was also seen in the case of Cedric D'Souza, who was eased out from the post of chief coach after the debacle at the Atlanta Games. In order to show that they still wanted to make use of the technical insight of the Mumbai coach, the powers-that-be appointed D'Souza as technical director in the Federation. However, it is yet not clear what D'Souza's role in Indian hockey is.

It may be mentioned here, that Horst Wein, the German guru of total hockey, recently pointed out that D'Souza's capabilities are being wasted by India.Meanwhile, the IHF seems secure in its belief that it has managed to avert a crisis with this new experiment.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.