Team Goemkarponn
Peddem: The cat is out of the bag. Goans are selling Goa and Goan interests for a few silver coins. The state is rocked by protests over meg projects which will reduce Goans to a minority in the coming years. All along Goans have been pointing to politicians and their chacmas of selling Goan land and Goan interests.
For a moment let’s forget about Goan land but shift our focus to Goan hockey. The Goan men’s hockey team is scheduled to leave for the Hockey India senior men’s championship which will take place from November 4 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
The team will have five non-Goa-based players who will play under the Goa banner of Goans Hockey. Goans Hockey is headed by Abhay Bhambikar, a chess player, who took over as president recently.
The team is practising at Peddem Mapusa every day from 4.00 pm, at the only astroturf in the state.
The coach is Eliter Fernandes, Sports Authority of Goa (SAG) a government organization and he is paid handsomely per month from the taxpayers’ contribution, but not doing any justice towards the game.
But he will be the one who will sacrifice Goan players’ interests and dump them into the garbage.
The second coach is Aviraj Madgaonkar, till last year he was the player of the men’s senior team, played in the National Games 2023 held in Goa and also was part of the senior team which participated in the senior men’s championship in Chennai held a few months after the National Games.
Aviraj has been the coach of the Goa sub-junior boys’ team on two occasions.
But the Siolim-born coach’s conduct has come under the scanner of Goa University officials and also some of the hockey promoters when he was coach of the Goa University team at the West Zone Inter-university Hockey championship held in Gwalior.
Aviraj Madgaonkar in collusion with manager Manisha Phadte another Goa senior player Yukta Mohato convinced a state-level hockey player from North Goa to be part of the Goa University team when she was not a student of any college, but a dropout from college.
We are keeping the name of the girl away from the public, as he was an innocent girl who fell for the tactics and sweet talk of the above trio.
How they did it was the modus operandi adopted by Aviraj Madgaonkar in another separate post and the action demanded by the hockey officials.
But Goans hockey functions in the reverse ways and instead of punishing this act of impersonation the coach Aviraj who is not employed anywhere but lives on the earning of hockey by his own admission and by taking up some private hockey coaching at some of the schools has been rewarded as coach of the senior team.
What is that special that he brings on board to be elevated to the senior team coach within a span of a few months?
GOAN PLAYERS
The Goan players some of who quit the game after the National Games 2023, dropped as they were on the verge of the Games held in Goa, have quit the game.
A few who have stayed put and come for practice for the initial days turned their back after seeing the five non-Goa-based players.
Some who sacrificed their private jobs for the sake of representing Goans Hockey, asked pointed questions to the coach Eliter Fernandes if he could guarantee them a place in the final squad.
He could not give a firm answer, and as a result, a few walked away from the team.
NO SELECTION COMMITTEE OF GOANS HOCKEY FOR PICKING UP THE TEAM
Sources at Goans Hockey informed that there is no selection committee and even if they have one, it is only on paper.
The players are not picked up from their performances in the state-level championship but from the open trails which players have to report for a few weeks before the championship
For all matters, the two long-serving Goans Hockey officials and one former seaman turned coach from Majorda are whole and sole of the entire selection process.
The coach/es have no say in the matter.
TRAILS MATCHES BEFORE THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
People on the ground who have been following the Goa senior men’s team practice sessions have that new president Abhay Bhambikar’s promise to hold trial matches and depending on that to send teams for the national championship has failed to take off.
It may be recalled that Bhambikar, while speaking at the Hockey Heritage Group magazine launching ceremony reacting to the suggestion by former Deputy Director of Coaching of the Directorate of Sports and Youth Affairs to hold trial matches before embarking on the national level tournaments had accepted the proposal and had assured to implement the same.
No such trial matches have taken place they said.
MODUS OPERANDI…….. HOW THE SYSTEM WORKS
So, who is bringing these players from other states and making them play for Goa?
There is a catch here. Can these happen without the express knowledge of the Goans Hockey officials? Certainly not.
Now the question is who from Goans Hockey is informing and writing to the different associations to send their extra players to represent Goa.
Our sources say that is the job of the duo who have spent a hell lot of years with Goan hockey milking it royally and laughing their way to the bank. One teaches the trick to the other and repeats it just like it is a classroom situation while the other counts the notes just as he was doing it as a cashier with a banking firm.
The non-Goa players have their part to get the No Objection Certificate from their respective state associations.
That done armed with the NOC they head to Goa and take part in the practice sessions under the two coaches.
Currently, all of the five are staying in Youth Hostel Mapusa.
Who is bearing their accommodation costs, whether it is the Goans Hockey or the players themselves it was not known.
But one thing is sure they will play for Goa no matter what the public opinion is, the Goans Hockey care a dam for the public and for the people who are taxpayers.
They are politicians who can get away with anything including selling Goa and Goan interests for a few pieces of silver coins.
