After returning from the Commonwealth Games without a medal, Hockey India, on Tuesday decided to swap the coaches of the Indian men’s and the women’s teams.
Harendra Singh, hence, will become the first Indian in a decade to coach the men’s team. And, the hitherto men’s coach Sjoerd Marijne will return to coaching the women’s team led by Rani Rampal.
Hockey India’s high performance director David John, after his review of India’s performance at Gold Coast, told The Field that the teams’ below-par performances (both teams finished fourth) were the reasons for the swap. He also hinted that “there might be significant changes to the playing group again” in the men’s squad.
Here’s the excerpt of his interview with The Field:-
On the reason behind the swap
The results of the Commonwealth Games weren’t good enough. The last two Commonwealth Games (the men’s team) finished in the top two. This time we finished fourth. We were beaten by two teams that were ranked below us. Honestly, all six matches they didn’t perform the best. With the remaining tournaments we have got – we have three very big tournaments left, particularly the Asian Games, which is the Olympic qualifier, we need to improve and send a strong message to the playing group that their performance wasn’t good enough.
On the constant change in coaches
Sjoerd was the women’s coach previously. So the change in philosophy won’t be any different there. We are lucky that we needed the change and Sjoerd goes right back into the women’s team. With respect to the men, Harendra has until now coached only the men. So, he knows a lot of players from the junior World Cup team. I think he is the ideal person to come in. He knows what’s required to get better results. And, we are looking forward to it.
On the problems in the team
Mostly the poor performances in the six games. We didn’t play even one match where we were happy. As a coaching group and support group... it’s difficult with all foreign coaches that come to India. There’s always some communication problem. English to Hindi can be an issue.That’s not an excuse (for the medal-less show at Gold Coast). But Harendra will deliver the message in the required language to the players. We have made some changes in the playing group because it’s not just the coach’s responsibility.
On Marijne’s ‘chop and change’ policy
That was also my decision. We had 33 players. We wanted to give opportunities to all the players. And we chose what we thought were the best 18 players, who played in this tournament. And unfortunately, they didn’t perform up to the expectations. So, next tournament there might be significant changes to the playing group again. As I said, I don’t want an instability in the group. All we want is to keep the majority of the players together and help them execute their skills.
On the changes that Harendra will make
Communication within the team. On certain key moments in the games (at Gold Coast), there was a breakdown in communication in the field itself. We will look to have a definite line of leadership through which the players get the messages and that they don’t get different messages that might confuse them.
He (Harendra) is a disciplinarian. We expect him to ensure that he will make the team play with discipline in defence... and in particularly, in attack. We should make the most of our opportunity in attack by being more disciplined.
INDIAN MEN’S CONVERSION RATES AT GOLD COAST:-
On India’s Penaly Corner conversion
It was no different from others, we got 10 out of 35 [at Gold Coast]. Chris Ciriello (the analytical coach, who looks after drag-flicking) has been with the team only for a month or so. What did improve is our injection speed and trapping. Also, Rupinder Pal was injured for the last three games in the tournament. I think with Chris’ influence we’d get better on that front.