The new Chief Coach of the men’s team, Michael Jack Nobbs, introduced a new trend for the team’s leadership. This new concept was introduced yesterday at the national hockey camp in Bangalore, India,

Instead of a single captain for the team, he proposed the idea of a group of 4-5 players who will be responsible to resolve problems and take decisions for the team. He believed that it will help in strengthening the relationship among the players.

Nobbs stated that Arjun Halappa will be the last captain of the team and this group leadership will be exercisable for the next few years.

The Australian Olympian expressed that in case of the captain and coach’s absence or hesitation to talk to, the players will have an additional option to whom they may address their matter to and further said, “However, if there is a leadership group, other players can walk up to these players and discuss things they are not comfortable discussing with me.”

Nobbs will be announcing the names of the group members after some days on personal observation and assessment of leadership qualities. He stated, “Every player will be asked to fill out forms comprising personal details. There will be questions as to what his goals are, what he would expect his role to be and the like. We will assess all the data before making announcing the names of the leaders.”

The coach has already discussed the idea with a few of the team players who had no objections.

This concept was first set by the former Indian coach, Ric Charlesworth, during his coaching to the Australian women hockey team in 1996 and 2000, bringing home the Olympic gold medals. Later it was used for the men’s side of Australia followed by the cricket coach, John Buchanan, who tested it on the Kolkata Knight Riders team.

According to the Australian centre-half, passing on the responsibility improves the productivity of the team as a whole. In case of a single leader, there is low probability of creating followers. Therefore, this concept has also broken the hierarchal aspect that will lead to a higher number of followers under the new model.