"Failure to qualify for the Olympics is the catalyst for the change that needs to occur"

•So, India actually had more preparation than you did at that time?

Absolutely, but that's changed now. In the west we have semi-professional players we've proper programmes. It was only after the debacle in Montreal where our Hockey team did quite well but the Australian athletes or other sports didn't do so well, that the Australian Institute of Sport was established. When that was established, then we started to support coaches, support players, build facilities and of course, have centralised training and playing internationally much more.

•You remember any moment from those matches you played against India?

Well I remember as a young boy in 1972, plying against India and feeling very, very threatened and daunted by the prospect. I think four years later in Montreal we were ready and believed that we coul take India and that continued I think.

•India had some wonderful forwards those days?

Yes, they……missing

•People hanging on for too long. Too much set piece, too little innovation?

Well I think one of the problems fo India is there's been stagnation. Sometimes I see training sessions when I'm here now, that remind me of that time.

So I think there's a lot of resources and facilities. You come out here this morning and see those boys playing hockey around the country.

•Chandigarh is the home of hockey…

But wherever you go in the country.If you go to Bangalore, If we go to Lucknow, there are boys playing hockey. There are centralized training, there are coaches. You have hundreds of XXX and literally tens of hundreds of boys prepare. Don't have anything like this in the west.

•But do these coaches, do these facilities make a difference?

Well I think it's what you do. It's the quality of what you do is what is more important. Sometimes there's a lot of quantity and not so much quality in the prepartion.

•Is that the problem you see in India?

It's one of them, one of the issues.

•An too much training by the rote?

Well I think there's not enough creativity, there isn't enough discovery that is important part of learning. You can remember, for instance, how you learnt to work. But you taught yourself. You made a lot of mistakes then you discovered it. The learning process is about discovery, not necessarily being told what to do.

... contd.