Roelant Oltmans has been sacked by Hockey India. (Source: Express Archive)
Indian hockey team’s head coach Roelant Oltmans was sacked on Saturday after the conclusion of three-day meeting of the Hockey India High Performance and Development Committee. The Dutchman is the sixth Indian coach to be sacked in the last 10 years. The decision was made in a meeting that was conducted over a period of three days.
Hockey India Selection Committee selection committee chairman Harbinder Singh said that the meeting due to the unsatisfactory performance of the Indian team in 2016 and 2017. “The Committee was convened since we are collectively not satisfied with the Indian Men’s Hockey team’s performance in 2016 and 2017 and feels that wins in Asia can’t be a benchmark for success any more,” he said, “We need to show results beyond intent in key international tournaments where the sporadic success over the last two years is more incidental than deliberate. To make results a reality, we need to make hard decisions for the greater good of the future of Hockey in India. The current format of coaching was not showing results beyond a certain level. The Committee unanimously agreement that immediate action was required to be taken and while change may not always be comfortable it is essential if we want to position ourselves as a serious global contender for the upcoming critical tournaments in 2018 including the Asian Games & World Cup and 2020 Olympic Games.” Indian team members PR Sreejesh, Sardar Singh and Manpreet Singh had also attended the meeting.
Foreign coaches/TDs fired by India in last decade: Ric Charlesworth, Jose Brasa, Michael Nobbs, Terry Walsh, Paul van Ass, Roelant Oltmans
— Mihir Vasavda (@mihirsv) 2 September 2017
It has been announced that the team’s High Performance Director David John will take charge in the interim until a suitable replacement has been decided upon. A Hockey India release also stated that the Director High Performance and Hockey India Selection Committee will be required to perform a detailed assessment of all the senior core probables, with those that have reached their peak performance to make way for younger talent. “The ray of hope shown via noteworthy performance of a much younger team at the recently concluded Europe Tour proves that it is time to recalibrate.The outcome of this meeting was based on the objective to seek winning performances in tournaments like Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and the World Cup coming up in 2018 and the 2020 Olympic Games,” said the statement.
