Chief coach of the Indian women’s hockey team, Neil Hawgood, will relinquish his services this December. He is not interested to renew his contract with the Sports Authority of India. Neil joined Indian women team on 23rd July 2012.

Official Statement by Hockey India on women’s hockey coach Neil Hawgood

Under Neil Hawgood’s able leadership, the Indian Women Hockey Team has progressed extremely well in the last 2 and half years since he has been with the team. Some examples being the Bronze that the team won during the 17th Asian Games and the Junior Women National Team securing India’s only Junior Women medal to date, the bronze medal in the prestigious Junior Women World Cup in 2013. While we are sad that Neil will not be able to extend his contract with the team, we respect his decision and thank him for all his efforts and contribution towards making this team strong and capable to perform with such conviction on the International arena.

We are sure this present team is fit to qualify for the upcoming 2016 Olympic Games and if we do so, then the credit will go to him as it is because of his hard work that we will reap such results in the future. We wish him all the best for his future endeavor and would like to convey that his journey with us was fruitful and positive.

We additionally extend our gratitude to Neil who has agreed to be fulfil his commitment and will be accompanying the team to Italy in December, hence highlighting his professional approach towards his work.

Hawgood’s coaching career spans across both men and women’s hockey at the
international level. He was Assistant Coach to the Australian Women’s team
at the 2006 and 2010 World Cup and at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. He
was also assistant coach with the men’s team from 2001 to 2004 at Champions
Trophies and coached the Australia A team in a four-Nation tournament in
Australia featuring India Pakistan and Australia, which India won in 2003.