Somesh is new women’s hockey coach

BANGALORE: Former international Sandeep Somesh has been made the coach in charge of the Indian women’s hockey team. He will leave for Patiala on Wednesday to join the team for a short camp ahead of the World Cup in Rosario, Argentina.

Sandeep and Khalid Modi are the two coaches who belong to the select few among the support staff to have a got a call-up from the Sports Authority of India after the infamous sex scandal that rocked women’s hockey last month.

Video analyst Nalini and physio Ankita Tandon have also been retained while the others who were part of the ensemble headed by chief coach MK Kaushik – including Vasu Thapliyal and trainer Gandhi – find themselves out.

Kaushik resigned last month after a playerTh Ranjitha Devi accused him of sexual harassment. Ranjitha’s teammates rallied around her, leading to a probe by Hockey India into the charges. The sports ministry too has instituted an inquiry before forming a new team of support staff.

After Kaushik’s exit, the players had demanded that Somesh and Modi were their choices as the duo had virtually been the backbone of the team, right from charting out the training methods, finetuning tactics to analysing their strengths and weaknesses during the video sessions.