The Tribune:Favoured by players, Hawgood returns as chief coach

Ahrens made strategy coach after discussion with players

Sabi Hussain
Tribune News Service

In a sudden turn of events, Neil Hawgood has been appointed as the chief coach of the Indian women’s hockey team, while Mathias Ahrens has been made the strategy coach.

Hawgood, who was supposed to join as an assistant to Ahrens in the run-up to the 2016 Rio Olympics, was handed over the reins of the national team after Hockey India (HI) consulted the players and support staff. Most of them favoured Hawgood’s appointment as the head coach as the 53-year-old Australian shared a good working relationship with the players during his previous stint with the team from July 2012 till November 2014.

Under his guidance, the Indian women won bronze medal in the 2013 Junior World Cup and silver in the Asian Champions Trophy. Before leaving India to work as a consultant with the Malaysian Hockey Confederation, Hawgood had guided the team to a bronze-finish at the Incheon Asian Games.

The players had been finding it difficult to adjust to the coaching style of Ahrens, who joined the team in May this year ahead of the World League Semifinals. The decision was made after a meeting between Hawgood, Ahrens, men’s national team chief coach Roelant Oltmans and HI president Narinder Batra.

“We recently appointed Roger Van Gent as the strategy coach with the men’s team and we were looking for a person with a similar profile for the women’s team. After discussing it with the players and the support staff, we decided to make Ahrens the strategy coach. So, we started looking for a chief coach and later appointed Hawgood in that position,” Batra told The Tribune.

“The decision has not been forced upon anyone. Hawgood, Ahrens, Oltmans and HI all are comfortable with this arrangement. The women’s team has qualified for the Olympics after a long time and we don’t want to spoil its chances,” Batra added.

Batra informed that the contracts of the two coaches would run till December 2016.

Hawgood said Ahrens did not have any issue with the reshuffle and both were committed towards the betterment of Indian hockey.

“When I was told that I will be part of the coaching team again, I was not briefed about my exact position. Later, I was informed that I will be joining the team as the chief coach. I have known Ahrens since 2003 and everyone is happy with the arrangement,” Hawgood said.