Kolkata: The Hockey India Selection Committee has taken a shocking decision today as they sacked the current coach of the men’s team Roelant Oltmans with immediate effect. Oltmans was appointed as the coach of the team in the year 2015 after Dutchman Paul Van Ass left the job. But under his guidance The Men in Blue failed to perform well in big tournaments. Their performance in the Hockey World League semifinal was not up to the mark. India ended the tournament on sixth place after they faced a shocking loss to Canada 3-2. The win gave Canada a place in the World Cup. His poor show as the coach of Indian Men’s Hockey team didn’t impress the officials of the Indian Hockey Federation. The legendary hockey players too looked really happy with this decision.
While talking to www.xtratime.in correspondent Sabyasachi Bagchi, Dhanraj Pillay said,”I am happy that the Hockey Federation have finally understood their fault and they have taken this decision. He got a chance to prove himself during the Hockey World League Semifinal, but the team faced shocking loses against the teams like Malaysia and Canada. As a coach he didn’t take any responsibility of the loss, but on the other hand when the team reached the final of the Champions Trophy he took all the credits for taking the team to the final. Under his term, the team didn’t improve an inch. He failed to motivate the team to perform well, but he was the highest paid coach of all time the history of Indian hockey. The Federation spent millions of rupees to pay his salary, but ultimately the outcome is big zero. During the HIL he was the manager of UP Wizards, but despite of having a great side he failed to make them the champion. If a coach can’t even give a trophy to a HIL side, how he could do well for the Indian national side.”
The Federation has appointed David John as the interim coach of the team. On being asked that whether the Indian coaches are better than the foreign coaches, Pillay added,” I think the Indian coaches are much more capable than the foreign coaches. According to me Harvinder Singh is the best choice for the post of Indian hockey team coach. He is working really well for the last 20 years. Former players like A.K Bansal, Baljit Singh Saini too are good choice as a coach. But for some unknown reason the Federation always think that the foreign coach can get better results than the Indians.”
Dhanraj Pillay has always been regarded as the Sachin Tendulkar of Indian Hockey. But the officials haven’t approached him too for the post.”I have always been avictim of politics. The officials always thought that they can also turn me to corrupt individual just like them, but I always played for my country with dignity,” concluded Pillay.
Mir Ranjan Negi said,” I was against him from the very first day. A team can win one or two matches without a coach but the Federation appointed him to bring medal for the country, but he gave nothing to the nation and the performance of the team has gone down day by day. This is a very good decision by the officials.”
Negi raised his voice for the Indian coaches for the top job,” With Roelant’s qualification, the federation should have made him the coach of India’s junior hockey team. I think they should give a chance to an Indian coach as he could motivate the players who come from different states to play for the country because he is aware with the culture of all the players.”
Son of legendary hockey player Dhayan Chand and the former captain of Indian hockey team said,” The Government have finally understood that they had brought a ‘White Elephant’ after spending millions of rupees.”
“The Indian coaches can do better job than a foreign coach on any day. At the end of the day this is a performance sport and you have to perform well and I think Harvinder Singh would be the best man to coach this side but the federation made David John as the interim coach and now we have to see what he can do for the betterment of Indian hockey.”