List of coaches of Indian team in history of Men's Hockey World Cup

Graham Reid will be in charge of the Men in Blue at the 2023 edition of the quadrennial mega event.

India to date has been led by 14 coaches in the Men's Hockey World Cup with 12 among them being Indians. India for the first time experimented with a foreign coach (Jose Brasa) in the 2010 edition which did not bring credible results. In the 2023 edition, Graham Reid from Australia will be the third foreign coach to lead India. Also Randhir Singh Gentle, Harmik Singh, Cedric d'Souza, and Vasudevan Baskaran are the only coaches to have led India in multiple men's world cups.

We take a look at the list of the coaches to have led the Indian men's hockey team in the history of the Men's Hockey World Cup:

1971 World Cup Barcelona, Spain

Balbir Singh Sr.

Balbir Singh Sr. was the coach of the Indian team in the inaugural edition of the Men's World Cup in 1971. He was a legendary player in his playing days having won the gold medal in the Olympics thrice (1948 London, 1952 Helsinki, and 1956 Melbourne). The legend has scored 246 goals in 61 matches. He coached India to a third-place finish and succeeded as a coach as well.

1973 World Cup Amstelveen, Netherlands

Randhir Singh Gentle

Randhir Singh Gentle, like Balbir Singh Sr., was part of the three-time gold medal winning from 1948 to 1956 and is one of the seven players to have achieved the feat. He guided India to the finals for the first time in the 1973 World Cup bettering their third-place finish in the previous edition.

1975 World Cup Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Gurcharan Singh

Gurcharan guided India to its maiden World Cup victory defeating neighbours Pakistan in the finals (2-1). In his playing days, Gurcharan Singh was part of the gold medal-winning team at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.

1978 World Cup Buenos Aires, Argentina

Randhir Singh Gentle

Randhir Singh Gentle again took command of the team in the 1978 World Cup. However, things didn't go as well as they did in the 1973 edition and the Indian side finished outside of the podium positions for the first time ever.

1982 World Cup Bombay, India

Harmik Singh

India finished fifth and were the hosts for the first time in the Men's World Cup. Harmik in his playing days was part of the 1968 and 1972 Olympics team. He also coach India in tough times when the playing conditions were changed. Hockey was played in astroturfs, unlike before when the sport was played on natural grass.

1986 World Cup London, England

Harmik Singh

Harmik Singh continued to hold the position in the following World Cup and things took a pretty bad turn this time. The gulf between the others and the Indians were as huge as it has ever been. India's worst performance in the quadrennial mega event came in this edition as they finish 12th.

1990 World Cup Lahore, Pakistan

MP Ganesh

Under the guidance of MP Ganesh India finished 10th out of the 12 teams when the tournament was first hosted in Pakistan. In his playing days, MP Ganesh was the captain of the India team and has won several awards (Arjuna award and Padma Shri). 

1994 World Cup Sydney, Australia

Cedric D’Souza

After a poor finish in the previous edition, India bounced back and reached the quarterfinals and finished fifth overall. Apart from coaching India Cedric has also led several teams - Delhi Waveriders in Hockey India League and the Austrian national team.

1998 World Cup Utrecht, Netherlands

Vasudevan Baskaran

India finished ninth overall after a good finish in the 1994 edition. Vasudevan Baskaran the coach in his playing days was the captain of the 1980 Olympic Games where India won the gold medal.

2002 World Cup Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Cedric D’Souza and CR Kumar

Cedric D'Souza was again at the helm with CR Kumar as his deputy. However, the former was dumped midway through the tournament and the assistant coach CR Kumar had to take over the reins of the Indian side.

2006 World Cup Monchengladbach, Germany

Vasudevan Baskaran

Vasudevan returned as the coach of the men's national team for the World Cup and his side could win only one game in the entire tournament to finish 11th.

2010 World Cup New Delhi, India

Jose Brasa

Jose Brasa was the first foreign coach to lead the Indian team at the World Cup. India finished eighth overall and was eliminated in the group stages. 

2014 World Cup Hague, Netherlands

Terry Walsh

Foreign coaches were not having a good time at the World Cup as India for the second consecutive time was eliminated from the group stages and finished ninth.

2018 World Cup Bhubaneshwar, India

Harendra Singh

India under the guidance of Harendra Singh reached the quarterfinals and finished sixth. In 2016, the Indian junior team won the gold medal under Harendra Singh and much was expected from him in the 2018 senior World Cup.

2023 World Cup Bhubaneshwar-Rourkela, India

Graham Reid

The Australian will, as aforementioned, become only the third foreign coach to lead the Indian men's hockey team in the history of the World Cup. Graham Reid has experience working in the Australian, Dutch and now the Indian hockey ecosystem and has helped the Blues win an Olympic medal after decades when they came back from behind to beat Germany in the bronze medal match at Tokyo.

* The list has been sourced from hockeypassion.in