David John to be interim coach of Indian men’s hockey team

New Delhi: Following the sacking of Roelant Oltmans as the head coach of the Indian men’s hockey team, David John has been appointed as the interim coach. Australian John was earlier appointed as Hockey India’s high performance director last year.

It is interesting that prior to the appointment of John as the high performance director, Dutchman Oltmans was in a dual role, acting as both the head coach as well as the high performance director.

John will have a tough task in resurrecting the performances of the Indian team considering that it has been a bit of a downhill curve. For John, it will also be an uphill battle on a slippery slope because Hockey Indian has some sort of a reputation of being impatient.

As many as six foreign head coaches and team directors have been fired in the last 10 years. Apart from Oltmans, the list includes Terry Walsh, Ric Charlesworth, Michael Nobbs, Jose Brasa and Paul van Ass.

On the change of guard, the chief of the section committee, Harbinder Singh, was quoted to be saying by PTI, "The current format of coaching was not showing results beyond a certain level. The Committee unanimously agreement that immediate action was required to be taken and while change may not always be comfortable it is essential if we want to position ourselves as a serious global contender for the upcoming critical tournaments in 2018 including the Asian Games & World Cup and 2020 Olympic Games.”