Balbir Singh-ji, Leander's U.S. Open Men's Doubles Victory has provided much needed temporary relief for me from the grief of the Indian Hockey Team's World Cup debacle in Germany. Losing to England (when did this this last happen ? in the early 1900s ?) and tying with underdogs South Africa should not be considered acceptable results in India. I know Bhaskaran did his best with what he was given. But we really need to do a Root Cause Analysis about this setback and come up with assignable causes and countermeasures to overcome them by the time of the Beijing Olympics in two years and the next World Cup in four years. I sincerely believe that meticulous application of Systems Engineering Principles has the potential to resusitate our Hockey Team. Sacking the coach at this juncture would be disastrous for Indian Hockey. We need a holistic new approach, not necessarily a new coach. I will be discussing root causes of this debacle with some of our players and former coaches when I am in India in Dec 2006.
It was quite coincidental that I received the book "Soccer Systems and Strategies" by Jens Bangsbo and Biirger Peitersen today. This is a thoughtful analysis of the various attacking styles, defending styles and regional styles that are characteristic of the various soccer powers by two former Danish national coaches. (BTW I am a big fan of Danish Soccer. They are very thoughtful and scientific in their approach to sports. In fact their national soccer goalkeeper Niels Bohr even won the Nobel Prize for Physics in the last century). In this book the authors are concentrating on Smarter Coaching, Sharper Execution and Superior Teamwork. I believe that should be our approach too as we try to induce Systems Level Thinking into Indian Hockey. Do give us your opinions and analysis of India's World Cup Hockey debacle. I am copying our fellow authors Dr. Muzaffar Shaikh and Dr. Ashok Pandit on this note too. Best Regards, Dr. Carmo D'Cruz, Indian Harbour Beach, Florida. _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
