Harendra Singh wants to take over the Indian hockey team as a coach again, but with the condition of having sole coaching authority.
At present Indian hockey team is without a coach, as Harendra Singh had resigned from his post taking “moral responsibility” after losing gold medal in recent Asian Games, while Spaniard Jose Brasa’s contract has expired and is not expected to be renewed.
Harendra suggests an expert for Indian team from abroad as a technical director to nurture talent at grassroots level. Brasa had a turbulent time while coaching Indian team due to several conflicts with authorities and Harendra said that foreign coach should
take cue from the cricket coach Gary Kirsten who gave out appreciable results and established a strong contact with the players and establishment.
Harendra had been coaching Indian team for a long time and feels that he understands the mentality of every player in the team and knows how to handle them, but he does not want any other co-worker to interfere.
"I am ready to reconsider my decision but this time I am not willing to work under anybody. I want full control as well as full responsibility. If someone wants to blame anybody for team's performance, it should be me," Harendra told.
The competition for taking over the Indian hockey team as a coach, has been started as Bangladesh's German-origin coach Gerhard Rach and Singapore based former Indian centre-half Jude Felix are willing to take up the responsibility while former senior players
want Harendra to take hold of the team again.
Harendra said that he had never been against hiring of foreign coach rather he had a suggestion if somebody is hired as coach.
"I thought we could have won gold easily as the standard of hockey was very low this time. Our team was better prepared while Pakistan and Korea were struggling," he said.
Present condition of the Indian hockey team has compelled Harendra to withdraw his resignation, but he wants authorities to consider his condition first.
"HI general secretary Narinder Batra has asked me to withdraw my resignation. I will, but for that I have some conditions. I have already written to HI and will meet the HI and SAI officials soon," he said.
Harendra suggested Indian hockey team to concentrate on their preparation for Olympics 2012 rather than wasting time and energy in blame game.
There are controversial views among the players of team about Brasa, as Captain Rajpal Singh accused Brasa of ill-treating him, and threatened him to resignation, while drag flicker Dhananjay Mahadik has accused Rajpal of inefficient performance in the Asian
Games.
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