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Hockey India runs out of patience, sends Harendra Singh back to coach India colts

Harendra Singh has been plucked away from being the head coach of the senior men's team and planted into the junior men's team role.

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If Hockey India (HI) was to ever think about a New Year's resolution, it would probably want to keep 'don't sack a coach' on the top of the wish list. Even then, though, the odds of the national hockey federation breaking it would be far more than abiding by it.

And so, in another round of HI's favourite musical chairs game, Harendra Singh has been plucked away from being the head coach of the senior men's team and planted into the junior men's team role.

In a statement on Wednesday, HI said that a high performance and development committee — comprising RP Singh, Harbinder Singh, BP Govinda and Syed Ali — has "advised" the 2016 Junior World Cup-winning coach to return as the junior coach. It added that HI will now hunt for a replacement of Harendra, whose contract as the senior team's coach ran till the 2018 FIH World Cup.

And while the sugarcoated statement spoke about "Harendra Singh's abilities of grooming youngsters" and the "the mercurial rise of some of India's top junior hockey players under the tutelage of Harendra Singh" as being the key reasons for the decision, fact remains that the senior team's below-par World Cup quarterfinal exit at home under Harendra was the biggest catalyst for the change.

"The performance wasn't up to the mark, and this was the recommendation made by the committee comprising some Olympians," HI secretary general Rajinder Singh said. "We will invite applications for the post of the senior men's coach and hire someone as soon as possible."

The HI secretary, however, added that the federation hasn't formally asked Harendra about the switch yet. "We will ask him soon," he said.

Harendra's stint with the senior men's team was also due to a round of musical chairs. HI swapped Harendra from the senior women's side to the men's team and Sjoerd Marijne from the men to the women after the men's fourth-place finish at the Commonwealth Games under the Dutchman last year.

And while the team under Harendra got off to a promising start with a silver at the Champions Trophy, its failure to defend the Asian Games title in Jakarta combined with the World Cup outing was enough for HI to run out of patience, a term it increasingly seems doesn't exist in its dictionary.

Not in 'control'

However, what has also played a big factor in Harendra's exit is a couple of off-field controversies during the World Cup in Bhubaneswar: Captain Manpreet Singh and some of his teammates entering the restricted VIP Lounge and the coach's outburst against the umpiring after India's loss to the Netherlands in the quarterfinals.

These two instances, HI believes, was a case of a commander not being in "control" of his troops, although the players have openly spoken about being more comfortable under Harendra's coaching as compared to his foreign predecessors over the past few years.

"We all saw what happened in the World Cup, not just with the result but even off the field," a highly-placed HI official told this paper on condition of anonymity.

"How could the players including the captain visit a restricted area in the stadium? It shows that the coach was not in control of his players. "And then the umpiring controversy was needless. You're the coach, you have lost, you must accept it and not speak like that.

"We thought we will promote Harendra looking at his past results with the junior team, but he couldn't even control his men. So, we think it is best to put him back to a job he can handle," the official added.

Junior coach unaware

Another aspect of this switch, however, is what happens to Jude Felix, who is the current coach of the junior men's team.

Till Wednesday night, Felix had not been contacted by anybody in HI, either to intimate him about this decision or discuss the road ahead for him.

Appointed in the role in August 2017, Felix's contract as junior coach runs till May this year, and the present scenario leaves his future in the dark.

Felix's own record over the past 15 months has some noteworthy results: gold in the Youth Olympic qualifiers, silver in the Buenos Aires Youth Olympics (although he didn't travel with the team as coach) as well as Azlan Shah.
The HI official said they haven't thought about Felix's future yet. "Once Harendra takes over, we will see whether he wants Felix in his coaching team or not," he said.

HI's revolving door

Since the 2012 Olympics, Hockey India has parted ways with 6 senior men's team coaches over the last 6 years:

  • 2012: Michael Nobbs
  • 2014: Terry Walsh
  • 2015: Paul van Ass
  • 2017: Roelant Oltmans
  • 2018: Sjoerd Marijne
  • 2019: Harendra Singh
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