Since the senior Asian Wrestling Championships, which ended on April 28 in China, India’s foreign coach Andrew Cook has been in Lucknow without any wrestlers to train.
While the camp for senior team was rescheduled to begin on 1 June, the camp for junior team was delayed.
So, when it was announced the national camp for the cadet team will begin from May 10, Cook was relieved that he will be able to resume training at Sports Authority of India, Lucknow. But to Cook’s surprise, he was not named as the coach in the national camp by the Wrestling Federation of India.
He was in for another shock when he was not allowed to eat at the SAI centre as he was not officially on the list of people sanctioned for cadet national camp.
The former USA coach was hired by the WFI to train women’s freestyle wrestlers for a monthly salary of $4500.
In an email written to the Wrestling Federation of India, Cook expressed his disappointment at not being able train wrestlers of the national team and said that this is not “what he was hired for.”
“I am not allowed to eat in the mess hall nor am I working with the cadet team as I’m not on the sanction list that was sent by WFI. I just don’t understand why I’m not doing the job I was asked and contracted to do with the senior women’s team,” Cook wrote.
Currently, Cook is training a group of wrestlers who are beginners and have never wrestled at the national level before.
“It defies logic from Sports Authority of India. We have never written the name of a foreign coach on the official list of campers,” a WFI said. “He is there to train all teams irrespective of the age-group. He is the designated coach who is always on duty.”
But the authorities in Lucknow needed a written letter about Cook being part of the camp which the WFI did not provide when the camp began.
Even in the senior team, four wrestlers have their personal foreign coaches and majorly train outside India.
“We held a meeting on Monday to assess the situation and thought that the wrestlers should not be allowed to train outside India when the national camp is underway,” WFI assistant secretary Vinod Tomar said.
A few members of the senior women’s team participated in the United World Wrestling’s ranking series in Italy while others who opted out of the tournament trained at their respective local centres. Cook wrote asking why he was not in Italy with the team.
The men’s freestyle and Greco-Roman team also participated in the UWW event and were accompanied by the foreign coaches. Iran’s Hossein Karimi was with the freestyle contingent while Georgia’s Temo Kazarashvili was part of the Greco-Roman team.
The national camp for senior women and men expected to start on Saturday in Lucknow and Sonipat respectively but it is yet to be confirmed.
The camp for junior team is also doubtful after the WFI’s proposal for conducting the camp from June 1 has not been accepted.