New Delhi, Jan 17 (IANS) Hockey India (HI) secretary general Narinder Batra Friday asked Ric Charlesworth to undergo “psychological treatment” after a foreign journalist pointed out that the Australia head coach had said “it was a disgrace” to see empty stands in the ongoing Hockey World League Final.
Crowd turnout at the 16,000-seater Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium has so far been quite poor and the India-Australia match Wednesday saw almost 8,000 people witness the quarterfinal.
“I take offence to that. We don’t criticise when we see empty stands in the stadiums abroad. Ric Charlesworth may have been a great player and may be a great tactician and a hockey genius, but he needs basic education when it comes to communication skills,” Batra said at a press conference here.
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“His communication skills are very poor and he needs to undergo mental and psychological treatment. He is a loose cannon and just says what he wants to. I don’t want to make any comments on what he says,” added Batra.
Part of the 1986 World Cup winning Australian squad, Charlesworth has had a troublesome past vis-a-vis Indian hockey when he was named technical advisor of the eight-time Olympic champions in 2008.
After negotiations with the K.P.S. Gill-led Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), which governed the sport in India then, broke down, the former Australia captain had to cut short his contract only after 10 months.
The 1976 Olympic silver medallist in 2009 started his coaching stint with Australia which won the 2010 World Cup and the 2010 Commonwealth Games gold, both held here.
