India in need of a better option for improvement in the national hockey team – Hockey News
With the current search still going on for a foreign coach by Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) in India, very time is left before the onslaught of upcoming tournament, especially the 2012 London Olympics, but to date no development has taken place.
On June 21, Pakistan’s former hockey captain, Tahir Zaman, commented that this is not a suitable option for the Indian team, considering the past unsuccessful experiences with foreign coach in both the countries.
Zaman brawled over this issue in Cairo, Egypt where he is the chief coach of the men's national hockey team.
He, being a former coach, suggested that this is not a long-term solution to the problem because the team has a different style of play that can only be understood by a domestic coach.
He commented, "Almost all the experiments with foreign coaches have flopped in India and Pakistan. India once brought Ric Charlesworth as high performance director but could not utilise him. Same is the case with Pakistan."
Zaman continued by saying that the past experiences with foreign coaches in Pakistan has also not worked very well, when speaking of long term strategy in the field of hockey. He shared that Pakistan hockey team’s first foreign trainer, Hans Jorritsma, who
was one of the primary reasons for the team’s success in 1994’s Sydney World Cup. In this regard, he stated, "During the 1994 World Cup it was also interesting to note that Pakistan won most of their matches on the basis of field goals, playing fast attacking
hockey that was their quintessential style, and not penalty corners."
Zaman added that the Dutch coach was only limited to training the team for capitalising short-corners and defence. On the contrary, the team’s manager was Rashid Junior, who took the entire responsibility of the team’s development on all other fronts.
After Jorritsma, another Dutch coach, Reolant Oltmans, was appointed from 2004- 2005, whereas the Indian team had a German coach in 2004, Gerhard Peter Rach.
Both the teams continued to appoint coaches from different backgrounds, namely the Australian Ric Charlesworth in 2008, currently the coach of the Australian national hockey team and the last one from Spain, Jose Brasa from 2009 until 2010. Both these experiences
were unsuccessful due to disagreements with the Indian Hockey federation.
Therefore, they need to think over some other option to meet the actual needs of the squad, leading the team towards an improved performance for the 2012 London Olympics.
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