Aussie Nobbs lands 5-year deal as India’s hockey coach

Says his immediate priority is to see that India qualifies for the London Olympics

Australian Michael Nobbs has been named the coach of the Indian men’s hockey team, warding off the challenge from Dutch contenders Roelant Oltmans, who coached the Netherlands to the gold in the 1996 Olympics and Jacques Brinkman, two-time Olympic gold medal winner in 1996 and 2000. His tenure will run till the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Spelling out his priorities, Nobbs said that though his immediate priority is to see the eight-time Olympic

In his first assignment after taking over the charge of the team, Nobbs and his assistant SS Grewal launched the two-month long National camp at Sports Authority of India’s South Centre in Bangalore champions qualify for the London Games, his ultimate goal is to get India back as a major hockey power.

In his first assignment after taking over the charge of the team, Nobbs and his assistant SS Grewal launched the twomonth long National camp at Sports Authority of India’s South Centre in Bangalore.

The Australian will be racing against time to get the team ready for the Champions Trophy in December and then the Olympic qualifiers in February, both in Delhi.

The Indian team has been without a foreign coach since Spaniard Jose Brasa left at the end of the Guangzhou Asian Games in November. His assistant Harendra Singh took the team to Azlan Shah Cup last month and could not retain the title.

That pressed the panic button among hockey administrators and spurred their hunt for a foreign coach. In January, the candidates were shortlisted.

A frenetic activity in the last 15 days led the administrators to Nobbs, who vouches by the style of Indian hockey, similar to the Australian way.

“Indian hockey has an attractive style. I have grown up on Indian hockey and now I want to give something back to India. Australian hockey is hugely influenced by India. We still play the Indian style. There are many Anglo-Indian coaches in Australia. I have many Indian friends. Australian team has been successful and so can India,” the soft-spoken Nobbs said in his first interaction with the media.

Asked about how he will get about his task, Nobbs said: “The first thing would be to identify where Indian hockey stands at present, talk to the players and analyse where we actually are. There are lot of processes involved. I know that qualifying for the Olympics is important, but we have to think of the long term development.”

Nobbs will be assisted by David John, an exercise physiologist, to analyse the players.

Asked about the reasons for decline of Indian hockey, Nobbs said: “It is sad to see the decline of Indian hockey. We are all here to think in one direction and that is to improve. I am not standing alone in this process. If Indian hockey has to succeed, it has to revolve around administrators, players and fan support.”

Nobbs said he is not thinking about the bitter experiences foreign coaches like Ric Charlesworth and Spainard Jose Brasa had in the past here.

“I have come here with no reservations. It is a privilege for me.”

On whether he would like to have complete say in selection matter, something which Brasa had raised and which is followed by international teams like Australia, Nobbs said: “I do not want a complete free hand, but I want

“Indian hockey has an attractive style. I have grown up on Indian hockey and now I want to give something back to India” to have the final say. It is important for me to take inputs from others.”

Hockey India secretary general Narinder Batra added that they have decided that the new coach will play an important part in team selection.

Nobbs, who played as centre half for Australia, served as assistant coach of the Japan women’s team (1993-1999) and then as their chief coach (2007-08). He is also a club coach in Western Australia and has the experience of working at the grassroots level.

A legend temporarily halted the stocktaking at the Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala where treasures said to be worth Rs.1 lakh crore have been found.

Monday, July 4 was the seventh day of knowing how many valuables were packed in the six chambers, two of them not opened for nearly 150 years. The Supreme Court had ordered the exercise. Retired judge M.N. Krishnan told reporters that “some sort of expertise” would be needed to open chamber B.

Krishnan said a seven-member committee appointed by the Supreme Court and headed by him will meet soon. “I have nothing more to say.”

The committee is making an inventory of the six chambers in the temple premise.

The estimated worth of the gems and jewellery found in five of the six chambers is unofficially put at a whopping Rs.1 lakh crore ($22 billion). The committee has not confirmed this figure.

The erstwhile royal family of Travanacore, which maintains the temple, believes that opening chamber B would be a bad omen.

A royal family source revealed that many legends were attached to the temple and that chamber B has a model of a snake on the main door.

“This is a clear indication that the door should not be opened because opening it might be a bad omen. I don’t think the team can open it because there is a lot of faith attached to the temple,” said the source.

Another legend says that there is a tunnel at the bottom of the chamber that leads to the sea.

The stocktaking was ordered by the Supreme Court following a petition by advocate T.P. Sundararajan over alleged mismanagement of the temple affairs.

The team is expected to present an interim report to the Supreme Court.

Tight security arrangements are in place in the temple premises. A 24-hour police control room has been opened and round-the-clock mobile patrolling is on.

“A 24-hour special police control room has been opened at the Fort Police station. Round-the-clock mobile patrolling would be started and permanent security arrangements would also be provided,” Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said recently. “This temple is our state’s pride...and is part of our culture. Hence it is the government’s right and duty to provide the needed security to the temple,” the chief minister added. He also emphasised that the treasure is the property of the temple.

Chandy added that when a permanent security cover is set up, it would be done by taking into confidence the head of the erstwhile royal family of Travancore.

The Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple in Kerala could well be the richest in the country as on the sixth day of preparing an inventory of treasures in its six chambers, it is suggested the value of its gold, diamond and other precious metals at close to Rs. 1 lakh crore.

Two more chambers are left unopened and it is expected that the inventory process may continue for a few more days.

The committee, which includes a gemmologist, stumbled upon a nearly fourfoot-tall statue of Lord Vishnu in gold and studded with emeralds. Other precious items that were accounted for included several golden statues, almost all weighing two kg each. Among other things are a gold necklace as long as 15 feet, and crowns studded with emeralds, rubies and diamonds.

The chamber is situated around 20 feet under the ground. The committee conducted the examination using artificial lights. Cylinders were used to pump in oxygen to the chamber to guard against breathing problems for committee members.

Gopalakrishnan said that according to the legend the gold got accumulated in the temple because in the olden days people used to offer gold to seek pardon from the royal family.

The main temple deity, Padmanabhaswamy, is a form of Hindu god Vishnu in Anananthasayanam posture or in eternal sleep of ‘yognidra’.

The foundation of the present entrance gateway was laid in 1566 and the temple has a 100-foot, seven-tier tower besides a corridor with 365 and one-quarter sculptured granite stone pillars with elaborate carvings.

As of now, the Balaji temple in Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh is believed to be the richest temple in the country, followed by Shirdi Sai Baba shrine in Maharashtra.

The erstwhile royal family of Travancore in Kerala is thrilled that valuables worth thousands of crores have been discovered in the chambers of a temple it manages.

The head of the royal family of Travancore, Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma, was tight lipped on the discovery and said: “I have nothing to say on this because one has to abide by the ruling of the apex court.”

Varma is the managing trustee of the trust that runs the temple.

One of the members of the royal family said: “How many royal families in the country can be proud of keeping things like this? You should understand that two chambers out of the six have not been opened for more than 150 years and it there that the treasure trove has been kept safely”.

Khushali Darbeshwar, 19, pinched herself several times as she watched the opening ceremony of the women’s football World Cup in a jam-packed Olympic Stadium in Berlin on June 29. From an Indian slum to Germany - it was like a fairytale dream for her to witness tournament - Discover Football, a global initiative to help disadvantaged girls, challenge societal norms and make a mark.

“I have never ever in my dreams thought about watching the women’s World Cup opening ceremony and the first match of Germany against Canada. I pinched myself several times to feel if this was a reality or not,” an excited Khushali said with a wide smile.

Being held on the sidelines of FIFA Women’s World Cup, Discover Football has brought together eight teams from across the world for an international women’s football tournament in the centre of Berlin.

The June 27-July 3 tournament is seeing the participation of women’s teams from India, France, Brazil, Israel, Togo, Cameroon and Rwanda, as also a team from Berlin. The teams have been selected by Streetfootballworld from a list of 38 applicants.

The tournament is accompanied by a diverse cultural festival.

Slum Soccer - the Indian team -- lost their first match against Berlin, but there is no dearth of confidence among the players as they are looking forward to other matches and a global exposure.

“The Berlin team has practised for a month with football experts of the national team. It was a learning experience, but I am more excited after watching the World Cup opening ceremony ... it was breathtaking,” said Priyanka Arun Ragit, daughter of a daily wage labourer in Nagpur, who plays as a forward.

Slum Soccer was founded by a Nagpurbased NGO that trains underprivileged children and youth from across India in football.

For most of the girls, the journey from slums to football was a challenging task, but they fought back to follow their dreams. Shehnaz Kureshi, 19, took to football as the boys in her class challenged her that girls can never play the game.

“I was interested in football but it is said to be a masculine game. I never tried it till I was challenged by the boys. When I started, I used to play with boys as none of the girls played the game, but now things have improved,” said Shehnaz, with the Indian tricolour painted on her cheeks.

This second year humanities student, who was abandoned by her father for being a girl child, had to fight both family and society to play football.

But now she is a star in her slum near Nagpur.

“People in my slum now look with respect and pride at me and even my mother is happy as I have also started earning by coaching children in football. Most of the girls in my locality now play football,” Shehnaz said confidently.

Slum Soccer was launched in 2001 with a vision to equip the underprivileged to deal with and emerge from the disadvantages riding on their homelessness using the medium of football.

“It was started by my father, but we started focussing on football in 2007 and decided to use it as a tool to bring a change in society,” Slum Soccer CEO Abhijeet Barse said.

Barse left his doctorate in environment studies in the US in 2007 to concentrate on Slum Soccer. Since then he has never looked back and Slum Soccer is making a mark everywhere.

“We have training centres in several parts of central India and will soon start one in Chennai. We have 12 volunteers and a fund-raising team. We are also developing a curriculum using football as medium for development and making the whole process more self-sustainable for players,” he said.

In 2010, Slum Soccer participated in the Homeless World Cup in Brazil and India won the Fairplay Award.

Forced to live away from India, M.F. Husain at one time wanted to destroy all his paintings, says his son Owais Husain who is hungering to conquer the wasteland of possibilities left behind by his illustrious father.

“I feel suddenly in life there is a wasteland in front of me, but the wasteland is rich, inspiring a hunger in me to devour the wasteland. I am ready, actually I am doing that,” Owais Husain, who is making a documentary on his father, said recently in New Delhi.

Recalling one of his father’s bouts of despair after his self-imposed exile from India, Owais, the youngest son of artist M.F. Husain, said, “There was a time he wanted to destroy all his paintings. What was the use, he said.” Owais, an artist and filmmaker, was in Delhi with brothers Shafqat, Shamshad and Mustaq to pay tribute to their father at a commemorative celebration by the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust.

M.F. Husain passed away June 9 in London after a cardiac failure at 95. He had left India in 2006 after being threatened by Hindu radicals over his paintings.

Owais’ movie, Letters to My Son about My Father, is a generational father-to-son narrative about the family’s illustrious brush with art and fame - from the obscure areas of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh to the bright lights of Mumbai and the world - riding on the patriarch, M.F. Husain.

“It will be a document of his life - capturing his journey as an artist and a man. I want to tell the story to my son - from a father to the son and address the posterity through him. I still have a few more interviews to do before I put it all together. I am also using family footage. But I am yet to find a close (end) to

Continued on page 26 the movie - don’t yet know how I will end it,” Owais said.

The documentary will use “classical music, photographs and several genres of art that Husain loved”, his son said.

M.F. Husain, who experimented with filmmaking between his vocation and commissions - public art, historical series and installations - made three major filmsThrough the Eyes of a Painter, Gajagamini, Meenaxi: Tale of Three Cities - that combined art, narratives, characters and music.

One of the movies, Through the Eyes of a Painter, which had won a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1967, was screened in the capital recently.

A 16-minute documentary, it was shot by the painter during his journey through Rajasthan. “The documentary, Through the Eyes… is inspiring,” said Owais, who is in his mid thirties.

The younger Husain said his father had completed two mega series of paintings - History of Arab Civilisation, History of Indian Civilisation before his demise.

“He kept painting till his death,” he said. Owais’ roster is crammed. “I have three films on the floor. There is a solo exhibition of my art works at Gallery Espace in the capital in October. It will be a bit of a ‘dhamaka’ - I have tried new formats and language,” he said.

The Supreme Court, while appointing a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the black money parked by Indian citizens in tax havens abroad, pulled no punches in chiding the government for being evasive and in the denial mode.

While constituting an SIT headed by former Supreme Court judge B.P. Jeevan Reddy, the court said lack of seriousness in the government’s efforts was contrary to the requirements of law and its constitutional obligations.

The apex court bench of Justice B. Sudershan Reddy and Justice S.S. Nijjar, which ordered the setting up of the SIT, said: “We must express our serious reservations about the responses of the Union of India. In the first instance, during the earlier phases of hearing before us, the attempts were clearly evasive, confused or originating in the denial mode.”

Speaking for the bench, Justice Sudershan Reddy said: “It was only upon being repeatedly pressed by us did the Union of India begin to admit that indeed the investigation was proceeding very slowly.”

“It also became clear to us that, in fact, the investigation had completely stalled, in as much as custodial interrogation of Hasan Ali Khan had not even been sought for, even he said.

Stashing away of huge unaccounted money in tax havens and the connections of suspected tax evader Hasan Ali Khan with arms dealers have raised questions regarding the sources of the money being unlawful activities.

The court said there was still no evidence of a really serious investigation into these from the national security perspective.

The court noted with concern that during interrogation of Hasan Ali Khan and Kolkata based-businessman Kashinath Tapuria, names of many people, including officials of corporate giants, politically powerful people and international arms dealers, cropped up. So far, no significant attempt has been made to investigate and verify these.

Both Hasan Ali and Tapuria are accused of laundering black money and stashing it away in tax havens abroad.

It appeared that even though his passport was impounded, Hasan Ali was able to secure another passport from Patna, possibly with the help or aid of a politician, the order said.

The order said that the government’s explanation was both unsatisfactory and lacked credibility on the “slowness of the pace of investigation” and why it did not take action that was “feasible and within the ambit of powers of the Enforcement Directorate itself, such as custodial investigation...”

The court also mocked at the government’s repeated insistence that the “matter involves many jurisdictions, across the globe, and a proper investigation could be accomplished only through the concerted efforts by different law enforcement agencies, both within the central government and various state governments”.

“What is important is that the Union of India had obtained knowledge, documents and information that indicated possible connections between Hasan Ali Khan and his alleged co-conspirators and known international arms dealers,” the court said.