Coach Swapping and Sacking, What’s Going on Hockey India?

Is swapping coaches the only solution to Hockey India’s woes?

(GIF: Harsh Sahani/The Quint)

Video Editor: Sandeep Suman
Camera: Shiv Kumar Maurya

The Indian men’s and women’s hockey teams both had disappointing campaigns at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. And according to their federation Hockey India, the obvious solution was to SWAP their coaches.

(GIF: Harsh Sahani/The Quint)

Sjoerd Marijne has now gone back to coaching the women’s team, and Harendra Singh is now the Indian men’s coach.

Let’s rewind a year, and the full LOL context of this switch will dawn on you.

Just eight months ago, Marijne had been coaching the Indian women’s hockey team. But because the coach of the then men’s team Roelant Oltmans was sacked, the women’s coach was moved to the men’s team. The women were instead assigned a coach who had never even watched a women’s hockey game!

Guess who that was? Yep, right. That was Harendra Singh.

I said LOL but the musical chairs being played with the coaches of Indian hockey is not even remotely funny. Why? Because this isn’t a one-off.

Trigger-happy Hockey India seems to have just one solution to a poor show by the team – sack the coach. Or this new thing they’ve started – swap the coach.

Here’s a brief history.

Before Harendra and Marijne was Roelant Oltmans, who started his stint as India coach in August 2015 when his predecessor was, well, sacked. Oltmans was already with the Indian team as the high-performance manager, and Hockey India decided he needed a change in profile.

As sudden as his promotion was, Oltmans managed to lift the team to new heights quite well. There were many highs, but all it took was two bad outings and some complaints by the senior members and Hockey India decided the Olympic gold-winning coach with three decades of experience was no more a fit for them.

File photo of former Indian men’s hockey team coach Roelant Oltmans (second from right) with senior members of the squad. (Photo: IANS)

The position was open, candidates were invited, but why bother?

There was another Dutchman on Hockey India’s payrolls and so Sjoerd Marijne bid farewell to the women’s team that he had been working with for eight months and moved to the men’s camp. And in Marijne’s place, the World cup-winning junior team coach Harendra Singh was appointed as the women’s High-Performance Specialist.

Harendra Singh had not only never coached a women’s side but also conceded to not having watched a women’s hockey match ever!!

Soon after this change, both teams had successful campaigns at the Asia Cup.

The men ended a 10-year wait for the gold, while the women ended a 13-year jinx. The men’s team under Marijne went on to win a bronze at the Hockey World League Final after defeating Germany. But the BIG disappointment for both teams came at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, and heads had to roll.

Besides the fact that the women have been forced to change coaches on two occasions in less than a year because of the men’s team, what makes the federation think that if Marijne is not a fit for the men, he IS good enough for the women? And if Marine is a good fit with the women’s team, why was he moved to the men’s team IN THE FIRST PLACE?

In fact, Marine has always advocated a player-driven coaching style where the team members are involved in all decisions and are thus responsible for their outcomes. The federation was well aware of this and also knew that it’s something that the Indian players are not used to. So why was Marijne made to move to the men’s hockey team just nine months before the Gold Coast CWG? Could Harendra Singh not have been made the men’s coach instead, having worked with most of them during his tenure as the junior team's coach?

Besides, is changing coaches really the only solution? Should the players not be held responsible for the evident dip in performances too? Or is that too tough a call to make?

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