Harinder appointed Men's coach, foreign coach to join him soon

New Delhi, Sep 26 (UNI) Perplexity continues to grow within the realms of Hockey India as former Olympian Harinder Singh was today announced as the coach incharge for men's team till 2010 but the IOA-run ad-hoc committee also added that soon a foreigner will join the team as national coach.

Talking to mediapersons here, the ad-hoc committee said the International Hockey Federation (FIH) has recommended the names of three foreign coaches to it but the IOA President Suresh Kalmadi failed to answer that who will be the chief coach amongst the two.

''We had a meeting today and we have decided to appoint Harinder Singh as the coach incharge for the men's hockey team,'' ad-hoc committee chairman Kalmadi said.

''We have also taken a decision to go in for a foreign coach and the FIH has recommended us three names,'' Kalmadi added.

The IOA president said soon the ad-hoc committee will meet the FIH coaching manager Tayyab Iqram who has the list of all the recommended coaches and only then will finalise the name of the coach for India.

Kalmadi said Harinder was the second choice after MK Kaushik who was earlier asked to take over as the men's team coach and the latter's association with the women's team made Harinder an obvious choice.

Even the ad-hoc committee's selection chairman Ajit Pal Singh could not give a definite answer as to what will be the exact role of the foreign coach but the former Olympian claimed that both the coaches will work in tandem.

However, if a source within the ad-hoc committee is to believed, the foreign coach will fill the shoes left vacant by Ric Charlesworth who was the technical advisor for the men's team.

''Harinder Singh will remain as the coach of the team, while the foreign coach will assisit him and would be taken a consultant to the team,'' the source said.

Meanwhile, the Indian hockey's present regime seems to follow the same track that it did during the appointment of Ric Charlesworth who however, resigned rather abruptly.

''I had a couple of meetings with the FIH president Els van Breda Vriesmanmeehad in Hyderabad and Beijing. We know that India had nearly lost the hosting rights for 2010 World Cup but then the FIH finally did agree to our requests and the governing body has extended its helping hand to us,'' Kalmadi conceded.

It was this helping hand that was extended some time back when Charlesworth was sent to India after recommendations from the FIH.

Finally the Indian hockey was sorrounded by a number of crisis which also included the debacle at Olympic qualifiers in Chile.

The ad-hoc committee also announced a number of tournaments which India will host in near future, the first one being a double-leg four-nation hockey tournament in February next year.

Olympic champion Germany, Holland, Pakistan and India as host will participate in that tournament which will be played in Chandigarh and Jalandhar early next year.

UNI RAR RKM RN1812