Former Indian Hockey Coach Rajinder Singh criticises over the selection of Australian Coach
The long-standing issue of the Indian hockey team though has been resolved after the selection of Michael Jack Nobbs as the Chief Coach. However, some former hockey players are not happy with the decision of Hockey India.
Rajinder Singh, the former Olympian and trainer of the Indian squad, has flayed criticism over the selection of Australian coach. He was of the opinion that the appointment would neither serve the sport nor the players.
It is worth mentioning here that the Indian team was surviving without a chief coach since the Asiad held in China back in 2010. The crisis was developed after the then skipper, Rajpal Singh, had levelled charges of mis-treatment against the Spanish Coach,
Jose Brasa. Following the maligning game, the contract of Spaniard was not renewed for another term.
Hockey India (HI), the sport’s governing body, picked up Nobbs to train the Indian team which finished at the disappointing 6th position in the recently-concluded Azlan Shah Cup at Malaysia. The body inducted him for a term of five years in order
to develop a long-term mechanism for promotion of the sport. It is vital to mention here that he is the fourth one in the list of foreigner coaches. Soon after taking the charge, the Aussie coach will evaluate the players’ performance in the upcoming Bangalore
Camp.
However, the decision of Hockey India did not make the former players quite happy in this regard. Rajinder, who himself served the team as a player and as well a coach, was not satisfied over the appointment saying that it would not bring any positive results
in the sport.
Declaring the induction as against the norms and culture, Rajinder said that they have great names in the country, but Hockey India disregarded all of them. He stated, “We always had held on the Olympics. We have several great and experienced players. They
(the administrators) have overlooked all those names and have forced upon the players a coach who is just the opposite of the tradition and culture in India.”
He targeted the national hockey governing body saying that it failed to pick up a suitable person for the post of the chief coach from the country which has eight Olympic titles to its credit. He also spoke about the handsome amount fixed for the Australian
worth of 10,000 Australian Dollars asking that why not Indian trainers were offered similar worth of salaries and long-term contracts.
He stated, “Indian coaches were neither given long tenure nor were they given handsome salaries. They were not even allowed to work freely and were treated like puppets. In such conditions a coach never felt secured.”
The former Olympian also expressed that the sport could not be put on way of revival without the support of own people.
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