"I feel betrayed," said the Olympian. "This is no way to treat a player, what happened today is not good for Indian hockey.
"I never wanted to be a coach, but without consulting me, the IHF appointed me coach for four years. And now, barely four months and one tournament later, they have dumped me," Pargat said.
The ace defender, who is the only player to lead India in two Olympics, said, "I don't know why they have changed me, maybe the IHF thinks I do not fit in their scheme of things. I wish Bhaskaran and manager Somaiyya all the best, but I am upset about the way I have been treated."
Asked what could be the reason for his abrupt axing, Pargat said, "I don't know. I did try to change the system, I wanted that players should not play too many domestic tournaments, they need rest, so I wanted that the tournament system in the country be streamlined. I asked for less tournaments because a player who has played 40 matches is not likely to be motivated when he joins the coaching camp. That is why I rested some senior players -- perhaps the IHF did not like that."
Asked why he did not agree to become the coach of the junior team, dubbed the developmental team, Pargat said, "Because there is hardly any development in that team!"
Reverting to the question of his axing, Pargat said, "Till the end, I was kept in the dark, they never told me that they had decided to appoint Bhaskaran, even till last night I was given the impression that I would continue to be the coach."
In his typical trenchant style, Pargat indicated that the IHF was attempting to have more and more tournaments in order to make money out of sponsorship. "For Rs 150, you can't hire a skilled labourer, but you can get a hockey player to play for less than that!"
Asked if he continued to be part of the IHF core group, Pargat, looking bemused at the developments, said, "I don't know. All I know is, many suggestions are made to the IHF -- but very few if any are ever accepted."
Meanwhile, coach Bhaskaran back-tracked on his earlier statement calling for the axing of senior players such as Pillai and Mukesh Kumar. "I was wrongly quoted," the new national coach said.
Bhaskran said he was keenly looking forward to the tour of
Pakistan. "I was a member of the Indian team which played its first
ever series in Pakistan in 1978 under the captainship of V J Phillips, Pakistan won that series 3-1," he recalled.
By including eight junior World Cuppers in Jagdish Ponnappa, Dilip Tirkey, Lazarus Barla, Anwar Khan, Baljit Singh Saini, Rajiv Mishra, Harbhajan and Samir Dad, the IHF has made it clear it is building the team of the future," Bhaskaran said.
Referring to the likes of Pillai and Mukesh Kumar, Bhaskaran said, ""They have not
played any major international tournament for a year after Atlanta, and they need to find their form and get into the groove soon."
Meanwhile, Gill said there is no truth to the charge that there is confusion in his federation's functioning. "Even before the Junior World Cup, there were reports that no preparations had been made -- but look at the results. We in the IHF know what is happening, we are in the process of
building up a developmental team which will provide players for the
senior squad."
Asked who is the coach of this developmental team, Gill said, "We
would have loved to have Pargat to be there, but he has expressed his
inability, we will soon decide about the coach."
Pargat himself, pressed for a response, said, "There is no development in the developmental team, I don't want to be part of a charade."
Asked why the IHF did not name coaches for an extended tenure, Gill said, "It depends on the coaches, Zafar Iqbal resigned on his
own after Hiroshima, Cedric D'Souza,resigned after Atlanta Olympics
though we urged him to stay on, Bhaskran was brought in, then we had
Pargat who has now expressed his inability to continue, so we have to name Bhaskaran again," Gill said.