Oltmans to be India hockey coach till Olympics

July 25, 2015 06:22 pm | Updated November 16, 2021 05:22 pm IST - New Delhi

A file photo of Roelant Oltmans.

A file photo of Roelant Oltmans.

Roelant Oltmans was officially named as the new chief coach of the Indian men’s hockey team on Saturday following a series of meetings between the Dutchman, Hockey India president Narinder Batra and Sports Authority of India Director General Injeti Srinivas.

“Oltmans has agreed to be the chief coach till 2016 Olympics and he will now be the Director, High Performance and the chief coach. His requirements have been given to us which we will be discussing with the SAI in due course. I think everything is in place,” Batra said after meeting Srinivas here.

The 61-year old Oltmans would replace compatriot Paul van Ass, whose tenure ended in controversial circumstances earlier this week.

The decision comes on Friday’s recommendations of a special nine-member committee constituted to decide on the coach issue and evaluate both the men’s and women’s teams performances at the Hockey World League semifinals in Antwerp. The face-off between Batra and van Ass began in Antwerp though the HI president has denied any tussle.

Though Oltmans arrived in Delhi to meet Batra, he did not accompany the latter for the meeting with SAI.

Srinivas refused to speak to the media but the HI president confirmed that the federation was not happy with van Ass’s performance in the five months he had been in charge.

Interestingly, van Ass had claimed that he was told of his sacking by Oltmans and shared a series of mails to prove his point, though the first communiqué on the issue remains confidential. But Batra claimed he had all the mails sent by Oltmans and defended him.

“On July 5th itself (the last day of the tournament), he had said it was a goodbye meeting.

“He had already decided not to come back and now saying that I have terminated his contract on the 10th. He has shown only four mails, I have a lot more but I don’t want to get into that.

“He writes on July 13th that he will not send any report to me. He tells me that you can talk to the players, then he says you leave. He says he doesn’t have a ticket when he had the ticket. I have spoken to the players.

“He was demoralised before the Malaysia match, he was telling them he was nervous, HI was putting pressure.

“Who was putting pressure when I spoke to him just twice in five months? A coach does not motivate like that,” Batra claimed.

Asked about the effect of frequent changes on the players, Batra agreed it was a distraction. The team is currently in Shilaroo for a fitness camp.

“This is a setback and players are getting affected, I concede that. But it’s not the result that matters it’s the way you play. It’s time to bring consistency. If they had lost 1-0, 2-1 to Australia, I would have said there’s consistency.

“Same with Britain and Belgium. But losing 6-1, 4-1, 5-1 is not accepted. India needs to be in the top-four in the world,” Batra added.

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