Baskaran’s hockey gold glitters even after 35 years

Vasudevan Baskaran is best known as the Olympic gold medal winning captain and better still in modern day drought for hockey as the last one to do it for the country. He is free from his active hockey career as a coach now, his Badshahs stint (in Hockey India League last year)  behind him, and he says he has enough time for his family now. 

The 65-year-old Arjuna and Padma Shri award winner had retired from Southern Railway as a senior sports officer in the grade of Deputy General Manager in 2010. He coached a few teams since then but now he takes up only very few assignments, mostly in Chennai and Coimbatore, “as I wanted to find more time for myself.” The former Indian mid-fielder talks to DT Next about his career, both as player and coach and also his views on hockey.

I am proud to be known as the captain of the Olympic gold medal team because I could contribute to the country. Especially since that has not happened again, so far. But I expect our team will break its jinx some day and I pray for it.

The Indian team which came close to doing what we achieved was the 1996 Alanta Olympic team. Unfortunately they fell short. Much closer was the 2000 Sydney Olympic team where we drew an easy game against Poland. In the end it was decided on a one-goal difference. Ironically, I was the coach of that team. 

The final with Spain was the best neck to neck match I played. Amat’s hat-trick could not stop our team. Probably, the record crowd of 22,000   at the stadium had an effect on us. Young players like Mohammed Shahid, Zafar Iqbal, Surinder Sodhi, Kaushik, Somaya, Merwyn Fernandes, Dung Dung and goalkeeper Chetri were good in all aspects. The core of that team stayed for the next Olympics too like Merwyn, Somayya, Zafar Iqbal and Mohammed Shahid. I played in the midfield and interestingly we had flexibility those days, though overall we followed the 5-3-2 pattern. Merwyn dropped to the half-line at times and I moved up to join the attack. Just remember we were reduced to 10 in that match against Spain in the dying minutes.

As coach the high was Junior World Cup at London finishing in second place in the final. Of course, Sydney Olympics (seventh place in 2000) was a low. But I am happy looking back at my experience as coach. 

The planning that is going into the preparations is simply not good enough. Right now, we are just focusing on the senior team. We need programming in schools and university. At least, 100 players at school level should be groomed. We must plan like Australia, England and the Netherlands. 

How do you rate the current Indian team?  

The current team is good but they need to play consistently well and they also need to be more aggressive. 

Coaching the team in the hockey league was like making instant coffee. Interacting with players from New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, England and of course, Indian players was a good experience and I enjoyed it.

Yes, I have two favourite numbers, 17 and 8. I played for India for the first time on 17th in 1971 against Australia. My jersey number was 8 and of course, my favourite year is 1980. My date of birth is also 8. 

Create more plans like Australia and promote more clubs. Help state associations to be more professional in their approach.