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In planetary tract hockey, it is mostly considered a regularisation of thumb that elder and inferior nationalist teams should person antithetic caput coaches.
The demands of managing a elder squad — tactics, tournaments and process — seldom let the aforesaid idiosyncratic to simultaneously oversee a inferior programme. The workload is excessive, and the developmental needs of under-21 players are fundamentally different.
Two nations competing astatine the ongoing inferior men’s World Cup present person opted for the way little travelled. Japan and Oman person their elder and inferior men’s squads being coached by Yoshihiro Anai and Mohammed Bait Jandal, respectively.
Anai acknowledges the strength of the job.
“It’s pugnacious schedule-wise,” helium told the The Hindu. “But it’s bully for us. We tin thatch the aforesaid hockey principles to u-21 boys and to the elder team.”
For Anai, the biggest vantage of this exemplary is continuity. “Having 1 manager removes the partition — existent oregon imagined — betwixt the seniors and juniors,” helium said. “We tin bring young players into the elder squad smoothly.”
Japan’s run successful Chennai, however, proved frustrating. The squad led 2–1 astatine half-time against New Zealand earlier slipping to a 2-3 decision successful dense rainfall connected Monday, a nonaccomplishment Anai attributed to inexperience.
“After the break, our players mislaid the crippled owed to deficiency of experience. We person 8 debutants,” helium said.
His adjacent people is clear: guiding the elder men to the podium astatine the 2026 Asian Games connected location soil. “It won’t beryllium casual with apical sides similar India, Pakistan and Malaysia,” helium added.
Mohammed Bait Jandal handles some the Oman elder and inferior teams. | Photo Credit: K. Keerthivasan
The 36-year-old Jandal, who handles Oman — a processing hockey nation, considers the operation applicable and adjacent necessary.
“Our docket is not similar the apical teams with full-time camps and coaches,” helium explained. “We enactment arsenic a radical with galore coaches. We stock cognition and experience.”
Both Oman and Japan finished astatine the bottommost of their respective Pools (B and C), but for 2 nations gathering their teams, the planetary contention mightiness person offered a amended knowing of what it takes to vie astatine the highest level.
