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Indian senior men’s hockey team head coach Roelant Oltmans recently decided to give up coaching the Uttar Pradesh Wizards side for the 2016 Hero Hockey India League, and the decision is being seen as a welcome move, as involvement of national coaches in the HIL has always attracted a fair share of controversy.
At the 2014 Hero Hockey India League, both head coach Terry Walsh and Oltmans, who is the High Performance Manager, courted controversy when they took up coaching roles with the Kalinga Lancers and Uttar Pradesh Wizards, with the Dutchman performing the same role in the 2015 edition as well.
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Salaries of national hockey head coaches are paid by the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and if head coaches try their luck in the HIL it amounts to conflict of interest. Given this, the move of Roelant Oltmans to shun coaching Uttar Pradesh Wizards must be music to not just SAI officials but also to all concerned with Indian hockey.
The demands of Indian hockey are quite high and this being an Olympic year, Oltmans can better serve India by observing the players, both established and not, at the HIL, and fine-tune the national team’s preparations for the Rio Olympics.
“I decided to move away from coaching UP Wizards so that I do not miss out on time to make our Olympic preparations. Preparing for the Olympics is tough and elaborate plans have to be put in place. Not coaching any franchise gives me an opportunity to watch all the established and fringe players at the 2016 HIL,” says Oltmans.
There may be talk of ‘conflict of interest’ but the celebrated Dutch coach is not averse to taking up a HIL role in the 2017 edition. “As I said I’m not coaching this year since it is an Olympic year but I can surely coach a HIL side in 2017.”
The Uttar Pradesh Wizards will name his replacement soon, and it remains to be seen whether they will accommodate Oltmans in 2017 if he desires a return to the same franchise.
