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New Delhi, April 24
The Indian men’s hockey team’s medal-less Commonwealth Games performance has brought chief coach Sjoerd Marijne under the scanner with Hockey India scheduling a performance review meeting later this week.
It has been learnt that some senior players of the team, including skipper Manpreet Singh, PR Sreejesh and Rupinder Pal Singh, met top HI officials here on Tuesday and presented their explanation for India’s performance.
It is for the first time in since the 2006 edition that India failed to win a single medal in hockey at the CWG. According to an HI official, not just the players, the coach’s performance will also be scrutinised and corrective measures will be taken, if needed, as three important tournaments — Champions Trophy, Asian Games and World Cup — are lined up this year.
“The performance in Gold Coast is definitely not acceptable. It is below-par to say the least. We have been providing all the facilities to the team but they just fail to deliver in big events,” the HI official said.
“We were one of the medal favourites but look how we performed against lower-ranked teams like Wales, Pakistan, New Zealand and England.”
It had been earlier reported that some senior players were unhappy with chief coach Marijne’s decision to blood youngsters. And the HI official said all these issues would be examined during the review meeting. “It will be too early to comment anything but Sjoerd too will have to come up with answers for the poor show,” the official said.
Marijne is presently at his home in Netherlands and is expected to join the national camp in Bengaluru from April 27. But sources said he would arrive in India only in the first week of May due to some visa issues. — PTI
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