Sports
Hockey India president Narinder Batra hits back at head coach for demanding, among other things, opportunity to work from Australia for a whopping 120 days a year
Updated : Sep 29, 2017, 05:51 PM IST
The impasse between head coach Terry Walsh, Sports Authority of India (SAI) and Hockey India (HI) refuses to end. In fact, things are only getting worse.
A day after the Australian told dna that several issues need addressing, both SAI and HI seem to have had enough.
Walsh had said on Thursday that even if he were granted functional autonomy, he wouldn't necessarily stay back because it would require him to spend time away from home.
Walsh's main demand is that he be allowed to work from home 120 days a year. The 60-year-old highlighted many other issues, and said there will have to be a series of meetings to arrive at a consensus.
HI president Narinder Batra hit back at Walsh on Saturday, saying "issues can't be cropping up every day".
"He wants to stay at home for 120 days and get paid for it! How is that acceptable? He is blackmailing us, and the country. I've had enough," Batra told dna. "I think he should decide what he wants to do. If he wants to spend time with his family, he can very well do that and leave. We won't stop him. There are many other foreign coaches who we can get," Batra added.
On Wednesday, sports minister Sarbananda Sonowal tweeted '#TerryWalsh is back'. Even SAI director-general Jiji Thomson said Walsh will stay on as India's coach. But the former Olympian denied it.
Thomson said Walsh can't have his way entirely. "How can we pay him for all these months if he is staying at home? We have 30-32 foreign coaches under us, and we can't make an exception just for Walsh. It will have to be applicable to others too," Thomson told this paper on Saturday. "We will look into all his issues, but we can't give him everything he wants. Even he will have to compromise on some things," Thomson added.
Walsh said there will have to be a series of meetings between the three parties before November 19, which is the end of his one-month notice period, to decide which is the best direction to take.
Batra, on his part, said he will now take a different route. "Look, if he is doing some honest reasoning, I will listen. But if it's blackmailing, I certainly will not," he said.
Thomson said, "Even one meeting can be enough to solve everything. I have asked him to give all his issues to us in writing, and we will call HI and him and try and solve them."
Another aspect that seems to have irked Batra is Walsh's demand of having three other Australians — David Hatt for greater sports network, Steve Smith for political interface and Bruce Elliott for sports science/sports medicine — on board.
"If he thinks India is a milking cow, he is wrong," Batra said. "Also, it has been one year since he has taken over, and the problems in the team, like finishing, still exist."
Dhoni takes over HIL's Ranchi franchise
MS Dhoni on Saturday became the new owner of the Ranchi franchise of the Hockey India League (HIL). Dhoni took over the team along with Sahara India Pariwar after the previous owners, Patel-PS Group and Uniexcel Group, backed out. The franchise, which was known Ranchi Rhinos, will now be known as Ranchi Rays. "I was always interested in doing something for this region, and I want to also see hockey being uplifted...," Dhoni said in a statement. However, the third edition of HIL, which is slated to held in January-February next year, will continue to be a six-team affair. The Pune franchise, which was bought by Deccan Water Treatment in September and was supposed to be the seventh team, has been done away with for now. "The Pune franchise was very slow-moving in its affairs, and so we decided to put them on the back burner," HIL chairman Narinder Batra told dna.