John backs appointments

The unexpected appointment of Dutchman Sjoerd Marijne as the head coach of the senior men’s hockey team has left many questioning Hockey India’s decision.

Marijne has never coached a senior men’s team but had a good run as the head coach of The Netherlands women’s national team. The Dutchman guided them to a first place finish in the Hockey World League Semifinal in Antwerp, Belgium in 2015. Under him, Holland also won a bronze in Champions Trophy in 2014. 

David John, the High Performance Director of Hockey India, defended the move to bring him as the men’s coach.

“It’s incorrect to say he hasn’t coached a men’s team. He was here in 2013 as the coach of the Dutch U-21 team. He is a very good manager of people, which is a very important characteristic as a head coach,” he said.”

The Australian seemed highly impressed with Marijne’s modern approach. “He is young but a very modern coach. He has coached the Holland woman’s team, who were number one for two years while he was with them. He understands what it takes a team to get to number one. Our senior men’s group have the potential to be on top. We needed a coach who can develop that talent quickly. I’ve put in goal that we’ll be number one by 2020. The players are starting to believe that we have that potential. I think we have coach that can take them to that goal,” said John, on the sidelines of the Bangalore Cup All-India hockey tournament on Friday.

Asked how the appointment of Marijne came about, John said, “First of all when Roelant’s (Oltmans) position became available we looked for the best possible person for the men’s job first. There werenumber of options. Harendra and Sjoerd were among those. We considered at this stage Sjoerd had a better track record and he’s possibly better for the team at the moment.”

The appointment of Harendra as the head coach of the women’s team took everyone by surprise since he was quite vocal about his desire to take the men’s position. “When we looked at the senior women’s team then Harendra’s name was obviously put forward and we are providing him with that opportunity now. He has proven himself to be very good junior coach, having won the Junior World Cup last year. We felt that it was important to provide Indian coaches with the opportunity to coach nationally, to inspire other Indian coaches,” John stated, and stressed that the idea should be to pick the best coach, and one should not differentiate between the nationalities.

“I think for the senior men’s team we were looking for the best available coach. Not necessarily Indian or foreign. In the Junior world Cup last year, there was a good synergy between Indian and foreign. We have to have the synergy between the two,” said John.