More Dutch names for India job

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 27

The race for the Indian hockey team’s coaching job is getting ‘Oranje’ with each passing day. After it was reported that Hockey India (HI) had shortlisted the names of Dutchmen Hans Jorritsma and Maurits Hendriks for the  position of head coach, it has now been learnt that the hockey federation has proposed the names of Dutch coaches Hans Streeder and Paul Van Ass to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) for the top job.

After the exit of Australian chief coach Terry Walsh, HI’s High-Performance Director from the Netherlands, Roelant Oltmans, had been entrusted with the task of identifying a new coach for the men’s hockey team and, interestingly, the names suggested by Oltmans to HI are of former Dutch greats.

Sports secretary Ajit Mohan Sharan and senior SAI officials have convened a meeting on February 9 to finalise the names.

Streeder and Hendriks have emerged as the top contenders for the post of chief coach. While Hendriks’s credentials as the inventor of present four-quarter hockey format and his impressive knowledge of modern hockey could well work in his favour, Streeder too has his nose ahead of his closest rival.

Streeder had assisted Oltmans during the 2008 Beijing Olympics when the latter was the head coach of the Netherlands men’s team.

HI has also forwarded the names of South Africa’s Fabian Gregory, New Zealand’s Anthony Mark Thornton and Canada’s Mathias Ahrens for the women’s team coaching job. The post fell vacant after coach Neil Hawgood refused to extend his contract with HI, which ended in December 2014. If sources are to be believed, Thornton’s name has emerged as a leading contender. He was the head coach of Australia’s U-21 men’s team.