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While Roelant Oltmans was appointed as the replacement to former head coach Paul van Ass, Hockey India are yet to decide who will assist the Dutchman, after former India skipper Jude Felix put in his papers as the assistant coach last week.
One of the names doing the rounds is that of Harendra Singh, who has earlier coached the Men’s Hockey team and is presently in charge of the junior team.
However, Harendra has made it clear he hasn't yet been approached to take over as the assistant to Oltmans and added that it wouldn't be advisable to make a change in the junior setup either since it might disrupt the junior team.
“A change at this point will disrupt the junior team, which is proceeding on the right track. I am definitely not in favour of shifting to the senior side and I have no idea about it. I have not been approached for the role nor am I keen on it,” he told The Hindu, after returning from Netherlands.
While Harendra agreed that a similar approach is followed in other countries, where teams look to ensure those emerging in the junior system play the style of hockey, similar to the senior counterparts, but because such a method has rarely been adopted in India previously, he wasn't quite sure how they could replicate it.
“In the Netherlands, I realised that it is a trend across the world today. Chief coaches of national junior sides assist the senior team (Belgium, Germany, Australia and the Netherlands are some of the teams following the model) so that there is a similar style and structure through the ranks and the transition of players from junior to senior, when it happens, is also smooth. In that respect, it would not be a bad idea. Also, Oltmans is a great coach and it would only help the juniors to learn something. But the Indian system and structure is not as streamlined as other countries, so I don't know if it can be replicated here,” he further told.
After a decent outing at the Hockey world league semifinals, where they finished in 4th position, India’s next challenge is fortnight tour to Europe, between July 31st and August 14trh and oit kicks-off with a match against France on August 3rd.
