The trophies were cleared out of the ground, the stands emptied and India quietly accepted its historic silver medal indoors. This was the Champions Trophy two years ago, when captaincy was new and unknown for PR Sreejesh. Today, it's second nature, like the gloves, leg guards and kickers he sheaths himself with for a match. He now talks of captaincy with an air of familiarity and authority and has beside him as coach the man who handpicked him from a bunch of scrawny kids at an U-14 tournament in Thiruvananthapuram a decade and a half ago.
"These are boys I know inside out," Harendra Singh offers with conviction ahead of the Champions Trophy, his first coaching assignment as men's national coach, "So if you ask me, I don't need time." Harendra took charge of the side in May this year and is already upon his first major tournament, which will be followed by two even bigger ones -- the Asian Games and the World Cup. It's also the first time since Joaquim Carvalho in 2008 that the men's hockey team have an Indian as head coach. Sreejesh draws upon the analogy of Indian and foreign food to put forth a sense of comfort with home-bred coaches. It eliminates the whole language conundrum, he admits. "There's no need for translation," he says. "Mistakes on the field are now easy for us to discuss and even junior players can go up to the coach and talk. It makes players feel comfortable. So that's the change. The first step of improving as a team."
Apart from India, the Champions Trophy, starting on Saturday, will have some of the current best sides in the world -- Argentina, Belgium, Netherlands, Australia, Pakistan - but Harendra isn't fussed about being judged on the yardstick of instant results or Hockey India's notoriety for sacking coaches. "I see it as an opportunity," he explains, "I have three major tournaments ahead and don't have to wait for two years to show what I can do with the team. That's how I look at it. If I deliver results why will the federation fire me?"
Dropped for the Hockey World League semi-finals, a four-nation tour to New Zealand and the Commonwealth Games where India finished a disappointing fourth, former captain Sardar Singh will be back manning the midfield. Two other experienced players who missed the Commonwealth Games and are returning now are defender Birendra Lakra and forward Ramandeep Singh. There's a conscious attempt to not rely on young legs, which is believed to have hit the team hard in Gold Coast, where India ended up losing to lower-ranked teams and botched even the most predictable results. "I won't make drastic changes in the structure of the team but definitely some minor adjustments are needed in the playing style," Harendra says, "Most importantly, we have to get scores on the board and defend in the 25-yard shooting circle without conceding a penalty corner. There's a thin line that separates us from the top four teams in the world. It's that line that we have to breach."
India have never won the Champions Trophy. A silver in the previous edition, then coached by Roelant Oltmans, was their best-ever finish in the tournament with the only other podium finish, a bronze, coming way back in 1982. The shootout that the 2016 final spilled into was ridden with drama. When the incident is now narrated back to Sreejesh, it's met with a half-smile. He's moved on, and so has the team.
This time it's a preparatory run ahead of sprinting to the 'centre of podium' at the Asian Games, says Harendra, spelling out their fresh focus. "We aren't looking at either the left or right, only the centre spot on the podium. Only gold. If we have a PC conversion rate between 28-32 percent we're assured of a podium finish. We have the strength, skill and power of a world-class side but it's the little areas that we need to work on." One such area, he points out, is getting into position in the circle. "If your body is not at a 45 degree angle you can't pass the ball. You miss timing and position and you miss a goal."
For the team, three different coaches in less than eight months has meant having to break away from dominant philosophy too often. Harendra's Dutch predecessor Sjoerd Marijne, for instance, spun his plans around a 'player-driven, coach-assisted' theme. For a society that prides itself for reverence shown to those taking the lead, Sreejesh confesses, it didn't sit well. "You can draw a picture and ask me to paint it, but if you ask me to both draw and paint as I please it may not work. That's true for the coach-player equation. The coach has to have some idea about how he wants us to go about things and we can then help execute it. In India, right from your young days we're always taught to follow the teacher so that's how it is."
Harendra is on the same page. He doesn't subscribe to the theory of ceding decision-making and control to players either. "I'm willing to take the entire pressure and responsibility that comes with this role. I don't want to pass it on to the players. They should be able to play freely."
India will start their campaign with a match against Oltmans-led Pakistan. At the Commonwealth Games, both sides played out a surprise 2-2 draw, something of a blip for a higher-ranked India who've thoroughly dominated Pakistan in the recent past including the 2016 Asian Champions Trophy, last year's HWL semi-final and Asia Cup. Against Argentina, whom they will play in their second match, India have lost on both occasions (Hockey World League final and Sultan Azlan Shah Cup) they've played in the last six months.
But none of that's weighing on their mind now. They're starting afresh. Harendra and Sreejesh wrap their arms around each other and wrestle in mock playfulness as they pose for pictures in the sun. It's a happy reunion. And not just Sreejesh, almost the entire team has an unmistakable Harendra connect. Either spotted and groomed by the 52-year-old or led to a junior World Cup win two years ago.
It's a snug, familiar setting. A homecoming for both the coach and the bunch he's leading.
Results are all they need now.