Oltmans has been given two years to turn around the fortunes of Pakistan.
THERE ARE certain divides in sport that when you cross, are met with a lot of scorn or expectation, depending on which side you are. Like every time when a footballer moves from Real Madrid to Barcelona, and vice versa. Or when a South African cricketer turns back on his motherland and moves to England.
Last month, Roelant Oltmans did what no hockey coach in the world has done so far. Five months after he got the sack from Hockey India, the Dutchman crossed the proverbial line and became the coach of his former team’s fierce rivals Pakistan. It’s not the first time he’s done that either – lest we forget that he is the only foreign coach India has had who previously coached Pakistan.
Oltmans, however, hasn’t drawn the usual sharp reactions, not scorn at least. You could point at the maturing rivalry between the two countries as one of the reasons. The other is Pakistan’s decline in the last five years, which has been so sharp that in the overall context of global hockey, they have, rather sadly, started to lose relevance. In short, no one really cared what they were up to.
Oltmans has been given two years to turn things around in Pakistan. There’re good chances, though, that he will be judged just two matches into his new job. Oltmans’ current team, Pakistan, will take on his former team, India, on Saturday. The recent matches between the two teams have been rather one-sided in India’s favour and Oltmans isn’t expecting anything different this time, too.
“The last four matches between these two countries have finished 6-1, 7-1, 4-0 and 3-1 (in India’s favour). So don’t expect overnight that we will immediately get better results,” Oltmans told The Indian Express. “Of course, we will fight for it and prepare ourselves in best possible way. But at this stage, I will still not be surprised if India probably win.”
It’s this realism that was a contributing factor to Oltmans’ removal as India coach. But he looks rather comfortable speaking his mind in a blunt way. Earlier this week, during Pakistan’s flag hoisting ceremony inside the Games Village, Oltmans danced with his players and joked around. He laughed and smiled, looking happy in general.
It was in sharp contrast to his last few months in India, where the 63-year-old looked like a grumpy old man made to work extra hours to earn his pension. By the time he was given the sack, Oltmans’ players began to find his ideas stale and the team management did not trust him with player selections anymore.
But even his harshest critic would not argue that Oltmans has played a role in India’s revival. The Dutchman came to India as the high performance director in 2013, when the national team was in a precarious position. He hand-held them through the turbulence and helped them reach a level where they are head and shoulders above their Asian rivals and can look eye-to-eye with the global powerhouses.
The Pakistan Hockey Federation has grudgingly admired India’s progress through this period. And the brief for Oltmans is to repeat that. “When I stepped in 2003, 15 years ago, the team was higher ranked and better placed in the world. The good thing is this team has the desire to that position – 4, 5, 6 in the world,” Oltmans said. “But I have told them from day 1 that it takes time. You can’t do all this over night. We had a two-week camp before CWG; that’s too little time to make any real change.”
Oltmans said Pakistani hockey ‘is now at a point where India was four years ago’. “Sometimes they do fantastic and sometimes you think what’s going on. By Asian Games, I think we will be closer to the level we are looking for,” he said.
He is in an unique position going into Saturday’s match. He has the intel on Indian players, knows some of the patterns and styles of play. But the team he will face on Saturday may have been the one he coached, but Oltmans can’t really call this team ‘his’. Only seven players from Oltmans’ last team have retained their place in the 18-member squad that’s travelled here as Sjoerd Marijne rebuilds a team that had started to stagnate under Oltmans.
India are generally slow starters in a big tournament. But they do not have that luxury here. England defeated Malaysia 7-0 on Friday, which means India will have to pump in as many goals as they can to win the group and avoid Australia in the semifinal.
As Oltmans has already conceded, the question isn’t if India can beat Pakistan; instead, what remains to be seen is by how many goals they do that.
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