NEW DELHI, Oct 14, 2010 (AFP) - Australia's legendary coach Ric Charlesworth on Thursday said India must get rid of bureaucracy if they are to match the hockey powerhouses of the world.
"During my time, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) was a problem," said Charlesworth, who worked as a technical consultant for India for eight months in 2008-09 before an acrimonius fallout with the country's administrators.
"It would be better if the game in India is privatised because bureaucracy is a problem. I think their current coach (Jose Brasa) is also having the same problem as me."
Charlesworth had frequent run-ins with the mandarins of Indian hockey during his short stint but proved his expertise back home by guiding Australia to an almost invincible status in about two years' time.
The former striker, who won the World Cup as a player in 1986, said the Indians were not short on talent and had improved in the course of the tournament.
"I think Brasa is doing a good job. They are playing a good game tactically. There are gaps in their game which every coach has to plug," he said.
"But they have played with effervescence and the way they came back against England, it was really commendable. I have always said that India have a lot of talent. They just need to plan better and develop a strategy."
Charlesworth said his team was now eyeing gold at the 2012 London Olympics.
"The main goal of the team is to do well in London. The gold here (in the Commonwealth Games) is a brick in the wall.
"If you would ask me, we were not technically sound throughout the 70 minutes in the game against India today. Technically, we did not do the things the way we wanted to in the first 15-20 minutes.
"We were sloppy for some periods in the second-half. It was tough to play out there in the heat. If you play back-to-back matches in these conditions, cumulatively it weighs you down."
Brasa said India was happy to finish second behind a team like Australia.
"Australia are a much, much better team," said the Spaniard. "They are two to three steps ahead of every other team in the world. I think to be second behind Australia is a good result.
"We were tired after tough games against Pakistan and England. They came out fresh. We were killed by their first goal, our morale went down.
"We made mistakes but after all we are humans, not aliens."
