COMBINED KOREA SET TONE WITH BASKETBALL

One win into the Asian Games and the bigger picture is already clear for the combined Koreas basketball team. Three North Korean players, including top-scorer Ro Suk Yong, and nine South Koreans combined for a 108-40 win over host Indonesia in women’s basketball. The Koreas will also be entering combined teams in rowing, canoeing and dragon boat racing.

“Let’s show the united power of the North and the South,” North Korean Olympic committee official Won Kul U said.

Regional languages seem to have become the new mantra of success for Indian sportspersons, with coaches finding it more convenient to convey a message succinctly to their players on the field in crunch situations.

Be it Olympic bronze medalwinning wrestler Sakshi Malik or the experienced hockey player Sardar Singh, there has always been the language barrier with foreign coaches.

When Sakshi pulled off a sensational victory over Aisuluu Tynybekova in the play-off bout at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and won a bronze medal, instructions from her coach Kuldeep Malik in chaste Haryanvi made a big difference.

“Pakad le chori, patak de jor se (grab the rival girl, bring her down),” coach Kuldeep shouted in the dying minutes, and within seconds Sakshi was there pumping her fist in jubilation.

“Language is a big gamechanger now as our players, especially wrestlers, prefer instructions in the same language they are fluent with,” said Kuldeep, who feels Indian sportspersons, especially those in power games, have issues with other languages.

“I speak with my wards in Hindi or Haryanvi as they are comfortable with it. I don’t want to go into technicalities but the communication between players and coaches should be perfect so that both are on the same page during competition. These days, Indian sportspersons prefer Indian coaches.”

Hockey midfielder Sardar Singh and former captain Manpreet Singh feel that having an Indian as the head coach has helped overcome communication barriers and it has helped tactically. “We feel more comfortable with an Indian coach like Harendra Singh,” said Sardar on Thursday.

“Our understanding of each other and our game has grown because we discuss things in our language,” said Sardar.

“With foreign coaches, you hardly get time to understand them in crunch situations, especially in the last couple of minutes. The job becomes easier if

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you hear someone sending messages in your language,” he said.

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

KULDEEP, Women’s wrestling coach