It’s time to look ahead: Oltmans

Sabi Hussain

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 30

Things seem to be settling down in Indian hockey after a roller-coaster ride over the last few weeks. With the Paul van Ass chapter closed, the new chief coach of the hockey team, Roelant Oltmans, looks to have cracked the code for co-existence with Hockey India (HI) as the team heads for a European tour. The 15-day tour is in preparation for the Hockey World League (HWL) Finals to be hosted by India later this year.

“It’s about striking a balance. It’s not always that your demands will be met, but sometimes you get what you want,” said Oltmans in his first media interaction after being appointed full-time coach.

“It’s disappointing that coaches come and go. But the foreign coaches also need to understand that we are guests here. We need to adapt to the Indian culture here,” was how Oltmans summed up his last three years in India as HI’s High Performance Director.

Oltmans has the experience of coaching the Indian team on two previous occasions, at the Asia Cup in 2013 and at the Champions Trophy last year. But this time, he has got a whole year to turn around the fortunes of the national side at the Olympics.

“The big difference is that now I have 12 months instead of six weeks, which I got last time. On the one hand, this will give me extra time to bring in my ideas, but on the other hand, there will be pressure on us to win a medal at the Rio Games which would be very challenging,” said the Dutchman.

Oltmans has asked for the immediate appointment of his support staff after the resignation of assistant coach Jude Felix in the wake of Van Ass’ sacking. It has also been learnt that he has made a demand to HI to appoint a scientific advisor and a specialist goal-keeping coach.

“The most important thing is that we need a lot of international matches before Rio. And there are a number of areas in which we need to improve — team’s cohesion, penalty-corner conversion, defence, with includes not conceding goals in the first quarter. The players need to show that they are really improving,” he said.

Oltmans said there will not be many changes in the structure put in place by Van Ass, who had been experimenting with the positions of the senior players.

“I agree that you defend with 11 players and attack with 11 players, but each and everyone has a role and the important thing is that all the players should know their role,” said the coach.

About his alleged mail telling Van Ass that he had been sacked, Oltmans refused to clarify his side of the story. “No, I don’t want to discuss that anymore. That chapter is closed for me. We need to look forward and prepare this team for the Rio Games. There is no need to dwell in the past,” he said.

Asked about Gurbaj Singh, against whom HI’s Special Committee has recommended disciplinary action for indiscipline and creating disharmony in the team, Oltmans refuted any such charges.

“I don’t know who wrote those things about Gurbaj. I haven’t seen the report. May be there’s a comment made by a special committee member,” he said.

“There is no doubt that Gurbaj is a good player. He is valuable for the team. But everyone needs to be a part of the team according to our norms and values. It’s not about Gurbaj; sometimes people do get into such situations. When you have a grown-up who behaves like a child, you need to tell him ‘do this or don’t do that’. That doesn’t mean that there is no harmony in the family,” he said.