Hockey India may appoint Terry Walsh as new national team coach

Indian Hockey team

Hockey India might appoint former Australia and Holland coach Terry Walsh as the new national team coach.

After Michael Nobbs resigned last July, there were indications that Roelant Oltmans, the high performance director of Indian Hockey, would be appointed as the permanent coach.

However, the sport’s governing body as well as the Dutchman denied such a move, saying he will continue to discharge his current duty.

As reported by Indian Express, a Hockey India official said: “Around four candidates have shortlisted for the job and among the big names it looks like Walsh is the only one who can be approached at the moment. Most of the top coaches are already employed with the European sides so there wasn’t much to choose from.”

A SAI (Sports Authority of India) official also confirmed: “They told us that Oltmans will be the high performance director and he will continue to be the chief of coaches and other technical matters. They have suggested the name of Walsh for the position of coach and MK Kaushik will be his assistant. We have accepted their recommendations but it will take a week or so before Walsh’s appointment is made official. There are certain areas that need to be worked on so we can’t say it is 100 percent done it.”