Times of India: Harendra Singh to be paid three times less than predecessor

By Narain Swamy

BENGALURU: The Sports Authority of India (SAI) has offered a monthly salary of Rs 2 lakh to women’s hockey chief coach Harendra Singh. The money, however, is nowhere near what sources had projected on Friday. In a conversation with TOI, sources had said that Harendra, who will report to SAI, South Centre, would get a handsome package virtually on par with what foreign hockey coaches, currently employed by SAI, get. But the two-year contract specifies nothing beyond a consolidated tax-free remuneration of Rs 2 lakh, sources said.

Furthermore, Harendra – who led India to triumph at the Junior Hockey World Cup – is not eligible for medical reimbursement or leave travel allowance unlike foreign coaches who enjoy these perks along with tax-free salaries. And, compared to the $9,500 his predecessor Sjoerd Marijne earned (around Rs 6 lakh at the current exchange rate of Rs 64 per dollar), Harendra would be getting only 30 percent of the amount.

In fact, Harendra would be paid considerably lesser than the other foreign coaches and scientific advisors associated with India’s hockey teams. While Eric Wonink (women’s analytical coach) gets $8,500, the scientific advisors attached to various teams take home $5,500 each. Men’s analytical coach Hans Streeder, who quit soon after Hockey India sacked senior men’s coach Roelant Oltmans, was being paid $9,500 while Oltmans himself earned a whopping $15,000. With foreign coaches being paid a stipulated percentage of their salaries in Indian currency, there is every chance that they get a hike whenever rupee exchange rates take a hit, sources pointed out. “On the other hand, Harendra is not likely be paid by his employers, Air India, as he has entered into a fresh contract with SAI.

“As a deputy general manager at Air India, his pay would have been only a few thousands less.

When he was coach of the junior World Cup team last year, he wasn’t paid a penny and had to depend on the Air India salary. The move to bring Harendra on SAI rolls now was to ensure that he was paid well for his work. But the compensation that has been worked out is nothing great. It is just Rs 25,000 more than what Jude Felix earns as the chief coach of the junior team. Is this the way we treat our coaches,” sources asked.

In its report submitted to the government earlier this year, the task force formed to prepare an action plan for the next three Olympics had suggested that deserving Indian coaches must be paid as much as foreign coaches. “This factor had led to an inferiority complex among our coaches. We need to address this. Also, we want former athletes to coach or be a support staff of national teams. They need to be paid as well and their employers told that they are ‘on duty’,” the task force, headed by national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand, had said. Recently, the ministry approved the formation of the empowered steering committee, which was one of the recommendations.