'Reticent' Rajinder readies for tough duty

NEW DELHI: Counting the number of coaches of the Indian hockey team whose heads have rolled in the recent past isn't the real issue any more. The 15th national coach in the last 12 years, Rajinder Singh (Jr) was, not surprisingly, reluctant to say much when he took over formally on Wednesday. These days, it doesn't really matter whom the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) appoints as chief coach since the consequences are more or less the same.Now how practical it is to expect anyone to make the team perform with just a month left for Azlan Shah for which Rajinder has been appointed? Any response from Rajinder on any issue at this stage and all hell can be expected to break loose at the IHF. The new coach, who is 46-year-old but looks much younger, was an active player himself at the domestic level till 2001 and was player-cum coach for Punjab and Sind Bank for almost nine years before taking over as their chief coach since the last seven years. As a left-half, he represented India in both Olympics and Asia Cup in the 80s but an international ban in the 1985 Asia Cup final ended his career abruptly. Some say that the IHF didn't fight his case strongly with the FIH. Former India chief coach MK Kaushik, who played in the same era, recalls that Rajinder was a per centgood left-half who also acted as a schemer for the team and sometimes took penalty-corner hits." As PSB's chief coach, Rajinder was 'in-charge of all their three teams - sub-junior, junior and seniors. The high point in his coaching career so far has been the National title PSB won in March at Hyderabad. per centIn 1989 and 1992 my team was given the best team's award at the national level," he told TOI on Wednesday. But few PSB players have made the cut in both the senior and junior national teams in the past few years.