Dhyan Chand award winner Malik replaced Vinod Kumar, who was axed after the WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh's surprise visit to the Sports Authority of India's (SAI) high-profile Sonepat centre on Friday.
Only couple of months ago, Kuldeep Malik was removed as women's wrestling coach after talks of unrest in Lucknow camp. His future appeared bleak as Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) took note of this.
However, his appointment as chief national coach of Indian men's freestyle wrestling team on Monday, has come as a surprise prompting questions wondering how this turnaround happened. It has been learnt that two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar and Incheon Asiad gold medallist Yogeshwar Dutt made it possible.
Dhyan Chand award winner Malik replaced Vinod Kumar, who was axed after the WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh's surprise visit to the Sports Authority of India's (SAI) high-profile Sonepat centre on Friday.
dna has reliably learnt from the top sources that after the sacking of Vinod last Friday, the new coach's appointment topic was hotly debated within the WFI.
It was Sushil, who impressed on WFI president to appoint Kuldeep citing his recent achievements and career records.
Kuldeep finished fourth in the 1986 Seoul Asian Games before his eighth place finish in the subsequent 1988 Olympics in the Korean capital only. He was twice appointed as women's wrestling team coach — first time he left the job while he was removed recently after Lucknow fiasco.
Kuldeep said that he "is delighted to get men's freestyle team responsibility".
"I should be joining the camp in a day or two. My priority would be to see more and more men's wrestlers get the 2016 Rio Olympics ticket in the September's World Championship," said Kuldeep.
Eight Indian wrestlers will be vying for an Olympic place through the World Championship. "I would be happy if six out of eight of our wrestlers can make it to Rio. And once that is achieved, winning gold medal would be my priority in Rio," Kuldeep chalked out his plans on Monday.
Meanwhile, WFI also named a new assistant men's freestyle coach and women's team coach following sacking of Rajneesh and Ramani Chanu, respectively.
While Jagmal Singh, who has been the personal coach of grapplers such as Narsingh Yadav and Sandeep, would be taking over as assistant men's freestyle coach, former international player Krishna Arya will be mentoring the women's team.
Both these coaches are employed with the Sports Authority of India (SAI).
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