Chennai: The unending conundrum continues. A new coach takes over. In a move, which defies some canons of logic, Joequim Carvalho replaced Vasudevan Baskaran as the national hockey coach.

What Carvalho has inherited is a crown of thorns. It is a thankless job, given its history in India, and the scope for flak if something goes amiss. A filament of pessimism is transparent after the disastrous performances in the Asian Games at Doha and in the World Cup at Monchengladbach. Doubts persist whether India will continue its link with the Olympics in 2008.

There was no hint, or need for a change. The IHF put up a brave face after the Asiad defeat against China. It defended the coaches, Baskaran and Harendra Singh, and asserted they would be retained.

Even as late as the first week of this month, Baskaran continued to perform his role. He prepared the LTP till 2010, and assisted in the selection of trainees for the camp set to begin on April 2.

Baskaran, understandably, is dismayed. Today, he is reconciled to the inevitable. But it is nothing new; he had experienced it before.

What lies ahead for Carvalho and his assistant, M.P. Singh, is not difficult to document. Hordes of issues remain to be sorted out with dynamism and diplomacy.

As a fairly tough mid-fielder with Olympics (1984), World Cup (1986) and Asia Cup (1985) as among the major marks of international exposure, Carvalho's credentials evoke no dispute. His coaching stints in and around Mumbai, with the Indian junior teams, and currently with Indian Oil are the major contributing factors. Additionally, he trained the Oman team for a brief period.

Carvalho knows that coaching Team India is a different ball game. Here the expectations are too high to match the potential available. Everything is linked with results; those who fail face incredible humiliation. How much will a soft-spoken and an introvert like Carvalho do to confront the pressure is not easy to forecast.

The material that Carvalho is compelled to handle will be more or less the same which Baskaran was saddled with. Neither the domestic tournaments nor the much publicised Premier Hockey League had forked up substantial addition to the national pool. It is gathered that the list of probables contains veterans like Dilip Tirkey, Kanwalpreet Singh, and Gagan Ajit Singh.

Knotty issues

A welter of confusion and several knotty issues, like the dropping of Viren Resquinha, will confront Carvalho when he takes the whistle to put the trainees through their paces at the Chennai camp. The hint that he was not a consensual candidate, and that misgivings arose from his own state unit can be an irritant as much as his personal problems.

Carvalho's success as a coach will depend largely on how much self-belief he can inject into the players. The Indians are never found wanting in skills, but certainly in under-valuing that.

All they need is a prompter to revive the passion for conquest. This will be the litmus test for Carvalho.

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