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The Indian men’s team head coach Roelant Oltmans praised the new regulations that were to be used in the upcoming edition of the Hockey India League. However, he believes the new rules will favour the Australian team more than any other nation if they are to be introduced at the international stage.
According to the new rule, the weightage for field goals will be double compared to the goals scored from the penalty corners which means while a successfully converted short corner will still count as one goal, a field goal will be considered as 'two'. Due to this new rule, the franchises went for youthful and skilled players instead of veteran players to complete their squad.
“It’s a good idea to test new things”
He said, “The nice thing about hockey is that it’s always searching for new ideas, new developments. For many years people have been saying that penalty corners have too much of an influence on the final results of the game, so I think it’s a good idea to test new things in these kind of major events and see how it works out,” as The Hindu reports.
The Dutchman is doubling his role as a head coach with the high-performance director as well with the Indian men’s national team. He was announced as the head coach for the Indian team after Paul van Ass’s falling out with the Hockey India President Mr. Narinder Batra.
“It might help the Australians a little bit more in future”
He had a lot of praise for the new rules in the HIL and credited the FIH and Hockey India to make the changes possible. He added, “The drag-flickers have to score, it’s very simple. I think it’s a good idea to look into it, to see if people are trying to score more field goals. The only thing is that it might help the Australians a little bit more in future because they are the masters in field goals.”
The Dutchman also clarified his need for an extra support staff in his squad.
He concluded, “During games I am always in a very nice position, I am very low so I can see the legs but if someone is in the stands he will see it differently. And that’s also one of his tasks to give me right information during games to get better results.”
Hockey India League 2016 will commence from early January next year. It will have its inaugural match in Bhubaneswar and the Finale will be played in Ranchi.
