Pakistan Hockey Coach Michel van den Heuvel refuse to supervise training camp in Abbottabad
Michel van den Heuvel, the chief coach of the Pakistan’s hockey team reportedly refused to administer the training camp in Abbottabad, the garrison city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where US Navy Seals killed Osama Bin Laden in secret operation on May 02, 2011.
According to the reports, the Dutch Coach has urged the officials of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) to move the camp either to Lahore or Islamabad.
The report said, “When Michel learnt that the PHF has decided to hold the training camp in Abbottabad, he didn’t like the idea. The coach told senior PHF officials that he would feel safer if the camp took place in either Lahore or Islamabad.” The main reason
behind the refusal of Dutch Coach was the killing of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in a compound in the garrison city.
Senior officials of the federation informed Michel van den Heuvel saying that the Abbottabad is a safe training centre, but to no avail. The federation wanted the national players have stiff-training in the hill station in order to perk up their fitness
level ahead of the month-long Europe Tour.
The Greenshirts will partake in couple of four-nation events in Netherlands and Ireland, respectively. Apart from these tournaments, Pakistan will play numerous test matches against European squads. This tour is vital for the Asian Champions ahead of the
2012 London Olympics.
At last, the under-pressured federation announced that the camp would be organised in the capital city of Islamabad on May 30, 2011. The decision to shift the camp from Abbottabad to Islamabad was taken in a bid to allay the security concerns of Michel van
den Heuvel.
Michel was hired as Chief Coach of the Pakistan’s hockey team in 2010 after they secured 12th position out of total 12 teams in the FIH World Cup held in New Delhi, India. Michel, who was fired from the post of Dutch Team after the World Cup failure,
was the only international trainer ready to take up the Greenshirts.
Pakistan though approached Paul Lissek of Germany and Barry Dancer of Australia in this regard, but both the trainers refused to come to Pakistan due to security reasons.
Michal was the third foreign trainer after Roelant Oltmans and Hans Jorritsma, who accepted the offers from the Pakistan Hockey Federation. Under the training of Dutch coach, Pakistan lifted the Asian Games gold medal after two decades.
Following the Asiad, Michel expressed reservations on the security issues particularly after the killings of Punjab Governor, Salman Taseer, and Minority Minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, in the capital. However, the federation assured the best possible security
cover to the coach on which he agreed to work until the 2012 London Games.
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