Date:13/03/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/03/13/stories/2008031360192300.htm

Sport - Hockey

Carvalho critical of umpiring

— PHOTO: PTI

NO TICKER-TAPE PARADE: The Indian hockey team arrives quietly at the Mumbai airport in the wee hours of Wednesday.

Mumbai: The Indian hockey team, which failed to qualify for the Olympics for the first time in 80 years, returned home in the wee hours this morning with coach Joaquim Carvalho blaming poor umpiring as one of the reasons for the debacle.

Carvalho, who had decided to resign owning moral responsibility for the fiasco, said there was nothing wrong with the preparation but the team failed to play to its potential when it mattered the most.

India lost 2-0 to Great Britain in the final of the qualifying event in Santiago, Chile, and the disappointment was evident on the part of the players who looked grim and tired after the long flight home. “The preparation went on the right lines and even now we have a very good team. I am not giving lame excuses, but it is just that we did not play to our potential and we lost the final,” Carvalho told reporters at the airport just after the team landed.

Unnecessary action

The coach was critical of the umpiring standard in the tournament, saying his boys were at the receiving end of “unnecessary booking”.

“We played with ten players for 25 minutes (against Great Britain) and got cards (we didn’t deserve). The umpires reprimanded even those players who did not get a card. They issued letters and called the players from hotel rooms after the matches at 11 p.m. at night. And, after that the boys were kept waiting for more than one hour by the umpires,” he added.

Carvalho recalled a match in which the umpires had issued warnings against his boys saying if they committed fouls in one match they would be pulled up in the next. He said he would take the matter up with the Indian Hockey Federation when he submits a report.

“I will certainly take up this issue when I submit my report to the Federation,” he said.

Asked whether he would reconsider his resignation, he said, “I will have to consider what the federation decides. I haven’t spoken to (K.P.S.) Gill yet. But certainly with the resignation, the morale in the team is very low.” — PTI