Former stars slam decisions to put Sjoerd Marijne in charge of men's team and Harendra Singh's appointment as women's coach
Coach Marijne (with a cap) gives the women’s team a pep talk during the Hockey World League Semi-Finals earlier this year
Only a couple of days ago, Junior World Cup-winning coach Harendra Singh, who was associated with the senior men's team as national coach from 2009 to 2011, claimed to be best suited to succeed sacked Dutchman Roelant Oltmans as coach of the men's team.
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It seems Harendra's prayers were answered, albeit not precisely. In a stunning decision yesterday, newly-appointed Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore tweeted: "Pleased to announce appt of Sh Harendra Singh, Dronacharya Award winner, as High Performance Specialist Coach for Indian Snr Women Hockey Team." Rathore also tweeted about the Indian women's hockey team coach Sjoerd Marijne becoming the chief coach of the men's outfit.
Harendra begins job today
While Marijne will take charge on September 20 after returning from an ongoing tour of Europe with the women's team, Harendra will be on the job from today. It is learnt that both Harendra and Marijne will remain with the teams till the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, but what it is surprising is that neither of the duo have any experience of working in the respective teams allotted to them. Marijne, who played for The Netherlands, guided the Dutch Under-21 women's side to a World Cup title and the Dutch senior women's side to gold at the Hockey World League Semi-Finals in 2015. He was a national head coach for The Netherlands Under-21 team from 2011 to 2014.
Meanwhile, Harendra has worked extensively with juniors in the men's team, some of whom are sure to be in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics side. Yesterday's decision has left the hockey fraternity flummoxed.
Harendra Singh
Former India women's hockey skipper Selma D'Silva told mid-day yesterday: "This decision makes absolutely no sense. It's pointless. I don't understand how it's going to help. What will big change happen over here? Have they just realised that Harendra will do better with the women than the men?
"Somebody has been advising them wrongly. I don't see any idea behind this. If Harendra has been with the men's team for so long, he definitely was doing something right." With three important tournaments —Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and the men's World Cup — at home lined up in 16 months' time, D'Silva, 57, a resident of
Mumbai who played for Western Railway felt there will be total chaos in the team.
'There will be total unrest'
"The players will be affected because a new face comes in suddenly. It takes time to build a rapport with the coach. It's not just the coach who needs to understand the players; the players need to understand what the coach wants from them as well. The authorities have caused this confusion. There will be total unrest. You can't keep changing coaches," the Padma Shree awardee added.
The decision to appoint Marijne will also upset both the men's and women's teams' set-up as the Dutchman took over the women's side only in February this year.
'Preposterous decision'
Former India men's hockey goalkeeper Mir Ranjan Negi said: "It's preposterous how they have come to this decision. The selection procedures should be questioned.
Harendra would have been a better choice. He has been with the men's team for the past 20 years and should have been given the reins of the men's team at this juncture," "As a sports lover, I fail to understand why Hockey India is doing all this. I am very sad. All of a sudden, they will find somebody and replace him without rhyme or reason. The popularity of hockey is at its lowest right now. Hockey is in doldrums and this will be very demeaning for the players," Negi added.
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