Roelant Oltmans To Hold The Reins Of Indian Hockey Team Till Olympics

Van Ass had created a flutter on Monday by claiming that he has been fired by HI following his public altercation with Batra.

Roelant Oltmans was on Saturday named as India’s new field hockey coach, after fellow Dutchman Paul van Ass was removed just five months after taking charge.

The new appointment was confirmed by Hockey India president Narinder Batra after his meeting with Sports Authority of India officials in New Delhi. I am not surprised. “He (Batra) was just finding ways to fire me and he did it”.

“I won’t call him a dictator but he is an autocratic person”.

The HI president also said that a committee has been formed to decide on the fate of the coach and it will take a decision on Friday.

“Can you please confirm that you received my explanation and the mails back and forth from Roelant Oltmans to me?”

“We should move ahead, coaches come and go. We can’t give clarifications to all his allegations”. When prodded further, Harbinder said, “He has not yet submitted his report on Hockey World League semifinals”.

“IBNLive are addressed to SAI Executive Director (Teams), Sudhir Setia, and were sent by him on July 21 and 22″.

“We will request Oltmans to stay as the team’s coach until 2018 World Cup”, Batra told reporters outside the SAI office.

Batra played down the controversy over the sacking and urged Indian hockey to look ahead.

Oltmans has been associated with Indian hockey for almost three years and to add to it, the players also gel well with him and some have even aired their views of handing the reins of the team to the Dutchman after Van Ass’ ouster.

He also said that he was not happy with India’s performance at the HWL semis and called Van Ass “incompetent as a coach, but a great motivator”.

“There is one year still left for the Olympics”.

Oltmans’ immediate task would be to prepare the team for the European tour, which starts on 31 July.

The marathon four-hour long meeting at the Hockey India headquarters here was attended by Harbinder, B P Govinda, A B Subbaiah, V Bhaskaran, Thoiba Singh, R P Singh, Asunta Lakra Jasjeet Kaur and Hockey India CEO Elena Norman.

Besides van Ass, the other foreign coaches who have served the Indian team over the last 10 years are Spaniard Jose Brasa, Australians Ric Charlesworth, Michael Nobbs and Terry Walsh and Germany’s Gerhard Rach.