DNA: I have always thought about long-term results: Indian hockey coach Roelant Oltmans

By Rutvick Mehta

‘Just look at what we’ve achieved over the past four years. That’s enough,’ says Oltmans

The three-day review meeting of Indian hockey team’s recent performances and roadmap ahead began in New Delhi on Thursday with an air of uncertainty around chief coach Roelant Oltmans’s long-term tenure. The Dutchman, however, was quick to dismiss the talk after the first day of the meet.

“I don’t think I need to react at all, to be honest. Just look at what we’ve achieved over the past four years. That’s enough,” Oltmans told DNA after the meeting.

The 63-year-old made a presentation on Thursday about the way forward for the senior team in the presence of Hockey India (HI) officials and HI high performance director David John, among others. Oltmans will be part of the meet on Friday too before flying to Bengaluru to re-join the national camp.

“I made a presentation on what I feel is the way forward for us to get the results that we want,” Oltmans said. “I only gave the presentation today (Thursday), and we will have further discussions on it tomorrow (Friday).”

Oltmans has done a decent job with getting Indian hockey back on track after taking over as chief coach of the senior men’s team in July 2015, and was thus given a contract extension till the 2020 Tokyo Olympics despite the team finishing a below-par eighth in the 2016 Rio Games.

However, with India having a disappointing 6th-place outing at the Hockey World League (HWL) Semi-Final in London in June, some knives were directed towards Oltmans for focussing too much on experimenting with young players rather than trying to get consistent results.

With 2020 Games in mind, Oltmans has drafted as many as 11 juniors from India’s Junior World Cup-winning team into the 33-member probables for the new Olympic cycle in March. He sought to try out various players in different combinations in a few tournaments including HWL Semi-Final, a strategy that came under fire from some quarters.

“I’ve always thought about the long-term results, and the long-term growth of Indian hockey. When I started here in India (as high performance director in 2013), I said that it will take 6-8 years for India to be a consistent performer. And that’s still what I believe in. So, I don’t have any change in my strategy. As a coach for many years at this level, I think I know what is needed,” Oltmans said.

He added that expecting immediate results with a relatively new group of players was far-fetched.

“In every year, you try and set your target. And there are certain times when you need to perform, that’s clear. But that can’t be done when you have a new group of players. Don’t forget, we’ve started with quite a number of new players in March 2017. So, you can’t expect to be winning every game straightaway, because you have to start all over again,” he said.