Pak coach hurls abusive words against Indian hockey players
India’s stunning victory over Pakistan in the Asian Champions Trophy hockey final today was marred by the constant hollering of the victorious players with abusive words by Pakistan head coach.
Pakistan’s Dutch head coach Michel Henricus Maria, standing on the roof of the stadium, was seen screaming at the Indian players with abusive words, especially when they were involved in infringements.
In the first half, when SV Sunil slipped and barged into a Pakistani player, Michel screamed first against the umpire, “Hey that’s a foul”. Then when Sunil protested to the umpire, Michel hurled abusive word against the Indian player.
The ranting was not only against the Indian players but also against the umpires. When the umpires blew the whistle against India, he screamed “thank you.”
In the second half, V Raghunath got into a skirmish with a Pakistani player which the New Zealand umpire Simon Taylor effectively controlled but Michel without waiting for the umpire to come in, screamed abusive words to Raghnunath.
Tournament Director Brian Fernandez said he would look into the matter and check with the technical bench if they were filing a report or not.
“He has already been warned once for coaching from the video tower. But if there is a complaint I would ask for an enquiry under the code of conduct,” Fernandez said.
Fernandez said since Pakistan team would leave immediately after the final it was not possible to have an enquiry the next day. “But I will definitely file a report to the International Hockey Federation (FIH),” Fernandez said.
India coach Michael Nobbs said he did hear shouting and screaming from the top of the stadium.
“It was annoying and I think it was detrimental to his own team,” said Nobbs.
A day before the final, Michel also got into an argument with two Indian journalists asking them to leave the stadium as Pakistan was training.
Pakistan was training penalty corners and the reason the journalists were sitting in the stadium was because the media room was not yet open.
On this issue, Fernandez said, “I don’t think any coach can ask journalists to leave. That is up to the organizing committee to decide if the training is a closed door session or not. Since he had not told the committee anything, he did not have any right to ask the media to leave.”