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14.08.2009 - Der englische Hockeyjournalist Ijaz Chaudhry hat hockey.de sein Interview geschickt, das er direkt nach dem sensationellen Saisonfinale in Großbritannien mit dem deutschen U21-Nationalmannschaftskapitän und -Weltmeister geführt hat. Häner wurde mit East Grinstead Hallen- und Feldmeister - als erster Club in der englischen Hockeygeschichte. Ijaz Chaudhry schreibt in England über Hockey und andere Sportarten. Er wurde vom Hockey Writers Club, dem auch viele deutsche Hockeyjournalisten angeschlossen sind, bereits einmal für seine Arbeit ausgezeichnet.
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Der Artikel:
21 year old German Martin Haner is one of the brightest emerging stars on the hockey horizon of the reigning World and Olympic champions. Having made his senior international debut at the age of just 17, he is close to carve out a regular spot in the national team. He might achieve great distinctions in future but Haner would never forget 2008-09. This season he had the honour to captain the German under 21 during their victorious campaign in the junior World Cup. But that was only one part of the young Berliner’s remarkable success story of the season.
Martin spent the 2008-09 season in England primarily to brush up his English but he will definitely cherish this year for the dream season of his English premier league club East Grinstead towards which he contributed in no small way. EG first lifted the national indoor title and Haner had a hat trick in the final. Then the club had its greatest moment when they won the Men’s Premier Division Title for the first time in their history. Needing a victory in their last game of the season against Surbiton, EG came from behind to clinch the tie 5-3 with Haner netting the final goal. Moreover, the penalty corner expert’s tally of 16 goals was second only to England Hockey League’s top scorer Gareth Andrew of Cannock.
The strongly built Berlin lad talks about his career and his experience of the English hockey. He comes out with some interesting comparisons between the German and the English hockey in almost all the spheres.
Häner: "Unlike England, Hockey is not played much in schools in Germany and most of the schools even don’t have the facilities for the game. Yet, I started at school and that too at the age of just three. The chief of my Kindergarten was a hockey coach and he handed us, the kids, hockey sticks. There was hockey atmosphere at home as well. Though my father was a handball player but he was involved in the management of the first XI of the Berlin HC of the Bundesliga. Then my elder brother has played for the Blue and White Club in the second division of the German hockey league. As a toddler, I started with the Berlin Sport Club and played for them from 1998-2005 and we won the U14 German championships in 2001.
Since 2005, I have been appearing for the Berlin HC in the Bundesliga. We have been doing well in the indoors and have made into the semis of the German national indoors every year since 2005 and were runner up once. Right from the early days, I have been playing mostly in the defence. I consider myself very fortunate that I made rapid strides and represented the national under 16 side in 2003-4 and then the under 18 in 2005. The same year I earned my first full international cap against Ireland at the age of only 17. As a junior my proudest moment was obviously lifting the junior World Cup.
Before that I also achieved individual distinction in the 8-nation junior tournament in Malaysia in January 2008 where I was named ‘Player of the Tournament’. Then in the last year’s Hamburg’s Masters where Germany won the tournament, I was declared the most promising player. This was something special for me to get recognition at the senior level as well. I earnestly desire to appear in a World Cup or the Olympics and hope to do so soon”.
“You know that I spent the 2008-09 season in England primarily to improve my English. During this period, I also wanted to play for a top notch club in the English hockey league, preferably close to London. I approached a couple of clubs and East Grinstead’s response was very encouraging. All my needs were catered for in a fine manner. The club provided me with a shared room with a team mate, a car and also arranged a paid coaching job. I used to coach players at a private college three days a week.”
Haner paid all this back to the club in a befitting manner. Didn’t he?
Häner: “Apart from achieving great success both individually and for the team, I also enjoyed playing the role of a sweeper. For the German national and youth squads, I have been employed as either central defender/marker or sweeper. I always prefer the latter role as it enables me to have more involvement in the match play. It provides me the freedom to move up to attack whenever I feel appropriate. Then I also organise defence sometimes even shouting at the team mates.”
Now, he is also ‘fully qualified’ to give comparisons between the German hockey and English hockey.
Häner: “As I told you there is very little hockey at schools as compared to England and almost no competitions at that level. The main difference in my opinion is at the club level. The top clubs in the Bundesliga especially in Hamburg and some in West Germany like Cologne are quite resourceful thanks to private sponsors. This enables them to provide accommodation to players close to the club and they are also given cars. All this leads to more practise sessions every week.”
And according to Haner, this makes the difference.
Häner: “Almost all the top Bundesliga outfits train at least thrice weekly. This helps develop good strategic and tactical understanding among the members of the squad. That is reflected during the match days. One often sees many strategic variations during the course of the Bundesliga fixtures in response to changing game situations. You don’t observe that in the English hockey league. As far as the skill levels are concerned, I don’t think English players are behind the Germans. At the same time it must be mentioned that as in England the players also have jobs to support them as you can’t live on hockey. ”
According to Haner, another factor that enriches the Budesliga is the presence of 1-2 Indian players in every team. This sounds surprising as over the last three decades, the fortunes of the Indian national side are on a continuous downward slide. Moreover, almost all the Indian players in the Bundesliga are presently not in contention for the national team.
Häner: “I still believe that the oriental players are natural ball players and possess special artistic skills, and one learns a lot by playing with or against them. Then we also have end of the season play-offs between the top teams of the league. The play-off encounters provide special competitive atmosphere as almost every game is a do or die affair.”
Germany are not only the current Olympic champions but have also lifted the last two World Cups making them easily the most successful national hockey side of the new millennium. Does it mean better coverage in the media? “
Häner: "Over the last half century, hockey has achieved more success for Germany at the Olympics than any other team sport. Yes, the sport does come into limelight both in the print and electronic media whenever the national team wins at the Olympics or the World Cup. But that doesn’t last long. The coverage of the national scene is very little, not much different as in the British media. Like here, the climax of the indoor season draws good attention. The semi-finals and the final are played over Saturday and Sunday in front of big crowds.
In case of outdoors, the end of the season play-offs also draw spectators in thousands though they don’t get TV coverage. Then as hockey is a big sport in Hamburg, the local derbies between any two of the three Hamburg clubs, UHC Hamburg, Harvestehude and Alster are often attended by supporters numbering almost three thousand."
Haner’s last commitment with East Grinstead was the Euro Hockey league.
Häner: “To play in the EHL was awesome. As a player you always try to play as best as you can and against the best teams. The EHL gives the chance to do this in a great environment in front of the travelling fans. I think East Grinstead did well to reach the quarter finals where we narrowly lost to the Dutch giants, Bloemendaal. In my opinion the EHL could have a positive effect for hockey, but I still think that hockey will never be as popular as a sport like football.
Simply because hockey is too difficult to understand for non-hockey players and the EHL won’t change this. But I think that the EHL is good for hockey’s popularity, because people can watch hockey online as well and there is a good TV coverage also. As a hockey player you feel more professional, as compared to the national league, with all the cameras around the pitch.”
Martin Haner’s love affair with the English hockey league is probably over after just one season. He will now be staying in Germany to start studying medicine, rejoin his Berlin H.C. in the Bundesliga and renew his international hockey ambitions. It is improbable that he will have such a memorable and successful domestic season that he had with the East Grinstead in 2008-09.
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