In a seemingly surprising move, current Indian women's hockey coach Sjoerd Marijne was on Friday named chief coach of the men's side. Harendra Singh -- the coach of the World Cup-winning junior team and the frontrunner for the position -- was put in charge of the national women's team. Their contracts will run till 2020.
Roelant Oltmans, the Indian men's coach since 2015, was sacked last week following a string of poor performances in the recent past.
Both the timing and manner of Friday's announcements were unexpected. The position for the men's coach was advertised only three days ago, with September 15 as the deadline for applications. And in a departure from precedence, newly-appointed sports minister Rajyavradhan Singh Rathore -- and not the national federation -- made the announcements official through this Twitter page.
Current Chief Coach of Indian Senior Women Hockey Team, Mr. Waltherus Marijne,will take over as Chief Coach of Indian Senior Men Hockey Team
— Rajyavardhan Rathore (@Ra_THORe) 8 September 2017
High-performance director and interim chief coach David John told ESPN that the decision was taken keeping the Asia Cup in mind. "It was important we made a quick decision since both the men's and women's teams have tournaments coming up shortly," he said. "So we didn't want to destabilize the teams too much and also it was necessary to give the coaches enough time to learn about the players." The men's Asia Cup will be held from October 11 to 22.
"At this stage, we chose the men's coach first and felt Sjoerd would be excellent for that role and has the requisite experience," John said. "When we looked at who could replace Sjoerd, we felt it's time to give an Indian coach that responsibility and so picked Harendra."
It is understood that Marijne was initially reluctant to take up the role but finally agreed after some coaxing from Hockey India and the Sports Authority of India. The Dutchman, who was named coach of the women's national team in February, doesn't have significant results with the side on his CV yet -- further calling into question the reasoning behind Friday's decision. In the 10-team Hockey World League Semi-Finals in July, the women's team under Marijne finished eighth after losing to Ireland in the seventh-eighth placement match having conceded two goals in as many minutes in the final quarter.
What cannot also be overlooked is Harendra's sidelining from the affairs of the men's team. Five months after he steered the junior men's team to a historic World Cup title in December last year, he was unceremoniously replaced and former India captain Jude Felix was appointed the junior men's coach. Only a few days ago, Harendra had expressed his intent to take up the role with the senior men's side. The rapport he shares with the players had added weightage to his bid.
Terming it an 'unfortunate decision', a former national player said that keeping Indian coaches away from crucial roles wasn't going to do the sport a favor in the long run. "When we have someone like Harendra who knows the team better than any other coach, why are we falling back on foreign options? How can we expect to develop coaches in India if we never give them a chance?"
What also went against Harendra is not enjoying a great working relationship with federation bosses, an area where Marijne scored. The advertisement for the chief coach's position was taken down from the HI site on Thursday, two days after it was posted.
It's not that India's stints with foreign coaches have been flattering. In seven years, the Indian men's team coach's charge has changed five foreign hands - Jose Brasa, Michael Nobbs, Terry Walsh, Paul van Ass and Roelant Oltmans.
It is learnt that German chief coach Valentin Altenburg had also applied for the position but negotiations, clearance and appointment would have taken a fair amount of time. Following Oltmans' sacking, the Sports Ministry put its foot down and directed HI to make do with available coaching resources.
After a lot of deliberation, all parties were on board with the decisions taken, even if reluctantly, on Thursday and Rathore stepping in with the announcement only served to give the plot away - that the ministry had called the shots. The six-month probation clause in the coach's contract though offers the federation a window of opportunity to make amends a few months down the line.
Marijne had led Netherlands' U-21 women's side to a World Cup title and that country's senior women's team to a gold at the Hockey World League Semi-Finals in 2015.
On why Marijne was picked, John said, "There were other foreign coaches who had applied for the position but the problem was going to be how much time it was going to take. A lot of them were not going to make themselves available until the end of the year."
Asked why Harendra was not picked for the men's team despite his familiarity with the players, John said he (Harendra) knew the junior boys well but that was not the case with the senior team. "Twenty of them have been together for the last five years, so he has very little to do with that group of players," he said.
Marijne is likely to take charge on September 20 following the women's team's Europe tour while Harendra is expected to be with the team by this weekend.