The FIH stepped in as India lurched from disaster to disaster, launching Promoting Indian hockey, but one year into the project, even they admitted that the IHF was just not moving on the problem areas that had been identified.

There were the sporadic triumphs — the Asia Cup in Chennai being the most recent and lustily celebrated — but by and large, India have shown an incredible reluctance to play competitive games against top teams.

So why is Indian hockey in this state? There are no new reasons to give here. Viren Rasquinha has time and again pointed towards a lack of facilities at the grassroot level. Dhanraj Pillay says there’s no respect for players. There aren’t enough astro-turfs, the domestic structure leaves a lot to be desired and the selection process remains a sham.