New Delhi: When the Hockey India League was announced with a total of eight teams in the men’s tournaments, a lot of speculation regarding the foreign coaches started trickling in.
One of the prominent names to come up was that of Graham Reid, who famously coached the Indian men’s team to a historic bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The news turned out to be true as Delhi SG Pipers appointed Graham Reid as the head coach of the men’s team.
“It feels like homecoming to be very honest. I think Hockey India has done a good job with the league and I am looking forward to it,” Graham Reid told The Bridge on the sidelines of the Hockey India League auctions.
However, this is not the first time Graham has been part of the Hockey India League.
A second innings
In the last edition, before it shut down, Graham Reid was serving as the assistant coach of the Uttar Pradesh Wizards with Roelant Oltmans being the head coach.
“I was involved in 2017 with the league and now back in 2024, it has been a couple of interesting days. In 2017 I was the assistant coach and I didn’t come to the auction but this time the experience of the auction was very interesting for me,” said Reid.
Sitting on the auction table can be a rollercoaster ride with the dynamics changing with every bid. Reid bid for multiple players but the other teams reacted and outbid him.
Talking about the experience, Reid called the auctions stressful.
“Auctions are very stressful and completely out of control. We don’t have control of who is coming up and how the other teams are reacting. It is a very interesting dynamic.”
After the auctions concluded, the Delhi SG Pipers got a 24-member squad with a healthy mix of experienced players and young Indian boys.
Delhi has formed a solid core of senior Indian team players including Shamsher Singh, Jarmanpreet Singh, Varun Kumar, and Rajkumar Pal.
The squad also aggressively pursued young Indian players like Rohit, Pawan, and Aditya Lalage.
Amongst the foreign picks, Argentine goalkeeper Tomas Santiago and Flynn Ogilvie were absolute deals at the base price of INR 10 lakhs.
Bringing the ‘band of boys’ together
Since the start of the auction, it was clear that Graham was following his strategy of picking up the players he had worked with and was looking to build the whole team around it.
“I am very happy with the Indian lot that we have picked. I have worked with the team and I know them throughout as they are my boys,” Graham said.
Not just the players, but the coaching staff around him also gives the feeling of a ‘band of boys’ getting back together for a New Year’s Eve reunion. The feeling gets stronger with the mention of the former Indian goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, who has also joined the Delhi SG Pipers as its director of Hockey.
“Ha ha, yes I am reunited with Sreejesh. But he (Sri) is in a different role. Apart from Sri, we have got my former assistant Shivendra Singh and also physical trainer Ranganath. So, it’s like getting the band back together which will make us stronger,” concluded Graham.