Foreign coach for hockey, again?
Mihir Vasavda. Mumbai
Indian hockey somehow manages to spring a surprise each time. First, it was the entire conundrum regarding MK Kaushiks role with the mens team and on Friday the five-member ad-hoc committee took a complete u-turn from its earlier stand and decided to rope in a foreign coach. As an interim arrangement, Harendra Singh was asked to take charge of the team.
The committee has also reshuffled the list of 48 probables, as 11 junior players made way for the seniors, including Dilip Tirkey, after the committee received criticism over dropping them. “Ajit Pal Singh told me to review the performance of a few senior players at the Tegh Bahadur Gold Cup in Mumbai. They are back in the side on basis of their performance,” committee member Dhanraj Pillay said. Other seniors back in the squad were Deepak Thakur, Bharat Chikara, Bimal Lakra and VS Vinay. Meanwhile, the juniors will prepare to the represent the country in the junior world cup next year.
But a senior member of the committee lambasted the decisions taken and said appointing a foreign coach would not have any affect. “They (the IOA) are taking the game nowhere. If they were so much in favour of a foreign coach then why did they appoint Kaushik? Why did they let go of Ric Charlesworth, who is the best person for the job?” the member told DNA requesting anonymity. “How can they judge the performance of the senior players on basis of one tournament?” he said.
Meanwhile, coach-in-charge Harender Singh believes whatever decided by the committee was for the betterment of the sport. “The camp for the team will begin in first week of October,” he said.