Three Aussies apply for women’s hockey coach job

Devadyuti Das, TNN

NEW DELHI: Following in the footsteps of India’s current men’s hockey team coach Michael Nobbs, three men from Down Under have applied for the coach’s job with the women’s national team.

The three names which the Sports Authority of India (SAI) is screening at the moment are Neil Hawgood, Charles Gaudoin and Alexander Maxwell Grey.

SAI is expected to finalise one of these three as the foreign coach of the women’s team by the end of this week. The contentious issue remains the terms of the contract.

“All the three applicants are asking for a fee of up to US$10,000 which is as much as we pay to Nobbs. We have to keep in mind that women’s team is also yet to qualify for the London Olympics and even if they do qualify we have to assess whether they can bring back a medal,” a source close to the development told TOI on Monday.

Earlier this year, German coach Gerhard Rach had also applied for the same position but SAI rejected the offer saying they did not need a foreign coach then. The women’s team will take part in the first Olympic qualification tournament in New Delhi from February 15 to 26 followed by the second in Beerschot, Belgium from March 14 to 25 and the third and final opportunity comes in Kakamigahara, Japan from April 25 to May 6, 2012.

Hawgood represented Australia in the 1988 Olympics and after his retirement he had coaching stints in London, Scotland, Queensland and Western Australia. Gaudoin, in fact, is an Anglo-Indian who moved to Perth in 1969 as a 16-year-old.

His son Paul was a defender and midfielder for Australia and was part of the Olympics bronze medal-winning team in 1996 and 2000 Summer Games.

“The term of the contract will be at least one year. All we need to do is work out the other financial details,” the source mentioned.