The omission of celebrated striker Jamie Dwyer from the Australian men’s hockey team for the upcoming Commonwealth Games to be held in Glasgow, Scotland next month, has taken many in hockey circles by surprise, including Kookaburras captain Mark Knowles.
The 35-year-old forward has been
contemplating about his international future for some time now, without setting
any specific time-frame for the same. Hockey Australia obviously want to groom
youngsters with an eye on the 2016 Rio Olympics. One cannot fault Hockey
Australia for looking at the ‘future’, but for somebody of the stature of Dwyer,
who has achieved so much for the country – deserves to go out on a ‘high’.
Apparently, if the Australian media
reports are anything to go by, Dwyer is cut up with his Commonwealth Games axing
and now intends to go on a vacation and get his batteries recharged.
Dwyer, who equalled Jay Stacy’s record
of 321 caps – the most by an Australian – during the 2014 World Cup final
against the Netherlands which they won 6-1, did not leave anybody in doubt performance-wise
as he looked good in The Hague like most of his team-mates and even scored once
in the final against the Dutch.
The fact that Dwyer gone on record about
him being among the ‘sixteen best hockey players in Australia’ and that he came
to know about his omission through an e-mail makes its amply clear that he
hasn’t liked the Commonwealth Games axing at all. Probably, Hockey Australia having
a talk with him about his exclusion for the Commonwealth Games would have been the
‘right’ way to go about things.
One is not trying to suggest that Dwyer
should be handed ‘special’ treatment, but clearly a star player like Dwyer
deserves to be intimated in a much better way than just an e-mail, especially
since he is at the fag end of his career, when even being dropped for a match
or tournament can trigger murmurs about whether it is curtains for a player.
The point is simple: Hockey Australia
could have told him that they are resting him for the Commonwealth Games as
they need to try out youngsters keeping in mind the 2016 Rio Olympics. One
can’t help but feel that Hockey Australia could have handled this issue (not
including Dwyer for the Commonwealth Games) better and not leave the vastly
experienced striker with a bad taste in his mouth. It is learnt that Hockey
Australia had merely released a statement about the Commonwealth Games team
announcement sans any mention about Dwyer – something which hasn’t gone down
well with many in Australia.
There is no doubt that age is catching
up with Dwyer and one knows for sure that he is keen to spend more time with
his family, but the forward must have still not ruled out his chances of
playing in the 2016 Olympics. If at all, the selectors or the coaches do not
want him in the Rio-Olympics-bound squad, they should tell him upfront and at
least allow him play in one international which can be his farewell game. A
player of Dwyer’s credentials definitely deserves better.
The writer can be contacted at: suhridbarua@gmail.com
2 comments:
This is the other end of professionalism.
Imagine if Jamie Dywer can be axed, then any player in any team can be axed if they do not fit into the scheme of things. No point crying over such issues. All countries do not treat all sportsmen as Sachin Tendulkar, who almost got axed had he not retired too.
To us hockey lovers Jamie will be a champion player come what may.
Hi Leo, I agree with your thoughts but just my focus was on whether telling him that he is dropped was important he came to know of his exclusion from an official email. I don't want to confuse 2 things - getting dropped i agree with you ......telling him about his exclusion and giving him a fitting farewell is equally important.............i wrote this piece because i was not against his axing but because he got to know of his exclusion from email and nobody in Hockey Australia that much he deserves i thought no harm in telling him that youngsters r d way forward and your time is up
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