Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai)

Testing time for language barrier

- HT@ ASIAN GAMES

them in crunch situations, especially in the last couple of minutes. The job becomes easier if you hear someone sending messages in your language.”

In 2015, language became a huge barrier when Australian hockey coach Ric Charleswor­th took over the reins of the women’s team. Players were at sea for weeks as they couldn’t understand Ric’s instructio­ns.

“Ric’s accent was tough to grasp, so we chose to play our way,” a former India women’s player said on condition of anonymity. “He tried to change the way we took penalty corners but we never paid heed to his instructio­ns.”

Asked whether the current women’s team would be having difficulty in communicat­ing with Dutch coach Sjoerd Marijne, she said it must be difficult for the players to understand his instructio­ns. “I saw some miscommuni­cation between the players and coach at the recentlyco­ncluded women’s World Cup in England. Look at team’s performanc­e in the Asia Cup, where Harendra was the coach. They won the title.”

The Asian Games would be the real test in determinin­g whether Marijne’s wards have been able to grasp his instructio­ns properly.

SIX-RIDER SQUAD

TVS Racing will field a six-rider squad for the rally, including Lorenzo Santolino of Spain, R Nataraj, Abdul Wahid Tanveer, Harith Noah, Imran Pasha and RE Rajendra from India.

 ?? GETTY IMAGES ?? Coach Sjoerd Marijne gives instructio­ns to his players during a tournament last month in London.
GETTY IMAGES Coach Sjoerd Marijne gives instructio­ns to his players during a tournament last month in London.
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from India