Coaches and administrators at war, allegations of indiscipline against players and a performance graph bobbing up and down the average line - is it really practical to expect India break its medal jinx at Olympics amid all this mess?
A manic week saw India losing it's fourth coach in five years - nothing different from the opening decade of the 21st century but painfully disturbing for the fans for whom it's becoming difficult to understand what, if anything, will revive Indian hockey.
Everytime the game seems to get back on its feet - like with the Asian Games gold, a knockout blow comes from off the field. Terry Walsh made India the first team to qualify for Rio 2016 but was sacked, unceremoniously as usual. Paul van Ass was asked to take the team to Rio but a mud-slinging match will see him leave as well.
And if that isn't enough, reports of indiscipline among the team could turn out to be a body blow and expose disharmony not just between Hockey India and its coaches but on the field as well.
The current Van Ass row isn't looking to die down soon even as HI is trying its best to fire-fight it by pushing Roelant Oltmans into the role in a haste. And it has been confirmed by the federation's Special Committee constituted to review India's performance at the FIH Hockey World League semi-finals in Belgium.
The prevailing dissatisfaction isn't just limited to the foreigners in the backroom staff as assistant coach Jude Felix too has reportedly put in his papers to indicate there's more to it than meets the eye.
Gurbaj Singh is being widely reported to be spreading disharmony in the team, which was confirmed to IBNLive by Van Ass, who called him "a bit of a troublemaker", but the Dutchman agreed that to sanction an experience player so close to the Olympics will lead to further trouble within the team.
But that leaves the federation under a huge cloud of doubt as it keeps scoring own goals. After all the team and it's build-up to Olympics does need some stability, but that hardly seems to be in HI's priority list.
The Special Committee members who confirmed that "there's no question of Van Ass returning as he isn't responding" were rushed into their cars by HI CEO Elena Norman so as Committee's chairman Harbinder Singh doesn't reveal more minutes of the meeting in his innocence despite seemingly briefed not to disclose anything.
But it must be said that in the end, every time a coach leaves, the conclusive reason for the mess boils down to an ego clash.
Mr. Narinder Batra may think about hockey's betterment and has without doubt brought more happiness to players with money flowing in through Hockey India League (HIL) and the FIH giving India priority in hosting big tournaments, but at the end of the day it's about Indian hockey. If the Dutch players refused to play in the HIL, that doesn't mean Batra should turn down an offer to tour Netherlands, which would have helped the team immensely preparing for the Olympics.
That's were the president is letting himself down.
Having said that, Van Ass too should have used some discretion when Roelant Oltmans mailed him to inform about his sacking. Coaches are the employess of SAI. HI has no right to hire and fire coaches. And Oltmans is not a message-carrier of the board. A High Performance Director is expected to play his role more responsibly than this. And Van Ass should have immediately rung up SAI instead of revealing it to the media and waiting for a week before checking with SAI.
But then Van Ass maintains that Oltmans was told by Batra and Norman to do so. And if that's true, which may never be confirmed, it's a deep, deep mess Indian hockey is being pushed into.
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