Roelant Oltmans sacked: With results not coming, Hockey India ran out of patience with coach

With a face as dark as thunder, Roelant Oltmans rushed into the press conference room in London during the Hockey World League Semi-Finals in June. India had just been beaten 3-2 by Canada. What made the result worse was that in an earlier pool match, India had beaten the same opponent 3-0; a match that defined classic hockey when faced with a defensive and difficult opponent.

But this defeat to a team which barely entered the Indian half, leave alone initiate movement from either flank or through the middle, defied logic and common sense. Earlier, a 3-2 defeat to Malaysia had robbed the Indians of a semi-final spot in the league.

What Oltmans said came as a surprise. Especially coming from a coach who should have by then read all the signs at least in the 1st quarter from an Indian team that does at times make heavy weather of beating teams below them in the world ranking. There was no doubt that Oltmans was angry. He had come into the tournament looking for a podium finish, or at least a semi-final spot which would help him to test the Indian team against better opponents.

Here is what he said: “There is nothing that I will discuss right now. That is nonsense. We have enough homework given by opponents. One of them is that if you create a lot but not score, at least you have to make sure that your defence stays well organised. With due respect to Canada, looking at all the statistics, we should have never lost this game.”

He then pointed towards the attitude of the players: “Canada had to win to qualify. We had already qualified. I think the attitude of the players was not at the required level. After beating Pakistan everyone thinks that is the only important game in the tournament. That is bulls**t, because Pakistan at this moment is not the team that you have to beat. You have to beat teams like Malaysia, Canada and other teams like England. We had 20 shots on goal from India. Canada had five out of which they scored thrice.”

Still angry, he spoke about the rest of the year: “I have said many times before — and it’s not anything new — that we go to three different tournaments with different players, Azlan Shah, here and the tour in August. After that we will come with the 18 players that will be the strongest team during the Asia Cup and the HWL Finals. So let’s wait and see. We are using these tournaments to come to the 18 players.”

Then Oltmans trained his guns on the media and fans: “People in India and the media should understand that these boys are fantastic hockey players. They create more chances than any other team in the world. Maybe we have to support that, don’t look always at the result. Look at the process, and be sure that it is coming. That’s what I am telling you. Don’t worry. These boys have the quality to be back at the top.”

In the end, he asked for patience: “Do or die will be in October (Asia Cup). Do or die will be in December (HWL Finals).”

Sixty nine days after that loss to Canada, Hockey India lost patience. Oltmans — who first came to India as the High Performance Director and was then made the coach after Australian Terry Walsh was sacked despite taking India to an Asian Games gold — has now himself been asked to go.

Stories that have been doing the rounds point to intrigue and player dis-satisfaction but that would be too simple an explanation. The story in a way goes back to Rio and that fateful match against Belgium in the quarter-final. India had the lead and then somehow lost grip to lose the match 1-3 and crash out of the Olympics. It was a match that defined Indian hockey — taking the lead and then losing momentum, space, movement, skills and most importantly defending for such long periods of time that it looked like a defensive drill in the 4th quarter.

Explanations were hard to come by. Oltmans during the Olympics pointed towards a good Belgium side and that India was on the right path. The target was re-set to Tokyo 2020 and immediately to the 2018 World Cup. Back in India, he still couldn’t come to a reasonable analysis of what went wrong in that game. To a question that Harmanpreet Singh was playing right half and defender came the answer: “That is his job and that if a player can combine both, there is nothing wrong in it.” But when countered that six times in that match, space had been created by gaps which led to counters, Oltmans replied: “That’s your analysis.”

To be fair, that’s exactly what a coach would say. But with no satisfactory answer to the constant aggression of the Belgians and India ultimately succumbing to pressure, Oltmans had at that moment of time left a vexing question mark around himself and the tactics that he employed. There is no doubt that he needed a win and pushed the team to win the Asian Champions Trophy in Kuantan in the end of 2016. Two wins over Pakistan, with the second coming in the final, did bring some semblance of normalcy back. But it didn’t quite paper over the cracks when a penalty shoot-out was required for a win over the Koreans in the semi-finals.

India’s victory in the Junior World Cup with a team trained by Harendra Singh yet again highlighted the huge question mark hanging over the senior side. Celebrations were in order and it is important to remember a quote by Harendra when the team was still training in Bangalore with a couple of weeks still for them to fly to Lucknow. “Even if I don’t go on the ground, this team will win the Junior World Cup,” he said.

He did go on the ground. But what miffed many was the presence of Oltmans in the dug-out. It was Harendra’s team. Nowhere in the world, at least in hockey will a senior coach ever sit in the dug-out of the junior side. The argument will always be that all hands are welcome. But these are thin, brittle lines and coaches usually work on different philosophies. Some even said that Oltmans wanted it to be understood that he also had a hand in the building of this junior team. Later he said, “It’s important we won and Harendra did a good job.”

Harendra, at his diplomatic best, said, “It’s good everybody was behind the success.” But it was strange that Hockey India allowed this to happen. Even when Oltmans was the Netherlands’ senior coach, he never entered the dug-out of the junior team. And even if the tournament had been in Netherlands, he would have never done that. Coaches never cross these sacred lines. But the perception being built was that Oltmans also had a hand in the Junior World Cup win. Nothing can be further from the truth.

Vasudevan Bhaskaran, part of the committee that sat to deliberate on the future of Indian hockey and its coaching staff, said, “It’s been a cake-walk for Oltmans for two years.”

It could be a minor statement or just the observation of a former Indian coach who himself has been reinstated thrice as national coach in the past, apart from being the first Indian coach to take the ‘97 Junior World Cup side to the final. But Bhaskaran, if nothing else, is an intelligent man and an admirer of Oltmans. “He is a good coach, there is no doubt about that,” he said. “You cannot take away from the fact that he took the Netherlands to the Olympic and World Cup gold. But of late if you look at his record, wins and tournament victories were coming only in Asia. On the world stage, it was difficult for India to stamp its mark. We did ask him about the future and he said that we will play the Commonwealth Games semi-finals. That kind of surprised us as we were in the final the last two times. So his assessment was kind of not falling into place with what Hockey India wanted.”

Oltmans, since the time he was Dutch coach, has always taken on the media, federations and got his way; also because he brought home results. One needs to also understand that he came in as a High Performance Director to India who was pushed into the job of the national coach. In a world where even coaches have an expiry date, was Oltmans in the job simply because there were no takers anywhere in the world and if there were, none of the top six would have positions for him? So, in a way, was he a reluctant coach?

It’s difficult to get an answer from him for that. During the 2017 Azlan Shah tournament, after a 0-1 loss to Malaysia had deprived India of a final against Australia, he said, “It’s irresponsible of you to ask me that. I am here because I believe India can enter the top four and vie for a semi-final spot at the Olympics and the World Championships.”

But like a constant buzz that question remained. It’s incredible that such questions are coming up after he has been sacked. But in the world of sport where intrigue, performance and skill all play a part, a coach getting sacked usually throws up more questions than answers, especially if he has taken the Indian team to the Champions Trophy final in London where after a breathtaking final they pick their best ever finish — silver. India beat Korea, Great Britain, drew with Germany and lost to Belgium and Australia to reach the final.

It was also a tournament without Holland, who withdrew saying they were preparing for the Rio Olympics; while Germany sent their second-string team. It’s also interesting to note that two teams who finished below India at the Champions Trophy — Belgium and Germany — entered the semi-finals of the Rio Olympics. Holland, who never came to the Champions Trophy, and Argentina, who didn’t even qualify for the Champions Trophy, were the other two semi-finalists.

Yes, India did beat Argentina in Rio. But it was Argentina who won the gold for the first ever in their history. That Argentina, a team we beat, won the gold is hard to swallow and raises doubts about Oltmans even though to be fair to him anything can happen in world hockey. But why is that ‘anything’ not happening to India at the World Championships or the Olympics is the question that Oltmans couldn’t reply but said ‘it’s in the future.’

Oltmans constant reply that ‘it’s a work in progress’ couldn’t negate the fact that short-term results are also needed to keep propping up the support. India, emotionally and culturally, is different from Europe. Plus even though yards of newsprint is taken up by other sports, Germany, Spain and Great Britain don’t enjoy as much media support when it comes to their national team so their ‘work in progress’ usually goes unnoticed.

Sources inside the committee — where three players (former captain Sardar Singh, present captain but injured P Sreejesh and the interim captain Manpreet Singh) also sat — said the players pulled the plug on Oltmans. Reportedly, these three felt Oltmans was shielding a few players even though their performances weren’t of international standards. Bhaskaran didn’t want to be drawn into player controversies. “But it’s a valid question and I can even ask what is Mandeep Singh doing,” said Bhaskaran. “In the match against Malaysia and Canada in the HWL (London), he couldn’t trap or figure out his position in the striking circle. I can understand if it happens in one match but match after match in such a tournament where your semi-final finish is important for the game as well as Indian hockey?”

What Bhaskaran left unsaid was in the end the objectives of Hockey India and those of Oltmans didn’t match. “He was preparing for the 2020 Olympics but what about the tournaments in between?” asks Bhaskaran. But the former Olympic gold medallist made it amply clear that Oltmans’ replacement David John Hockey, India’s High Performance Director and whose area of expertise is fitness, will take charge until a suitable replacement is found. It won’t be out of the realm of fantasy to predict that the next replacement may be an Australian.

But that does that rule out an Indian coach? Harendra has always been passionate of his role in Indian hockey. Mostly, the man who played the 1990 Asian Games for India as a full back has played sidekick to other coaches. But with David John as High Performance Director, it wouldn’t have harmed Indian hockey if the interim coach was Harendra for the Asia Cup and the HWL Final in Bhubaneshwar in December.

If he didn’t perform, finding another coach wouldn’t have been an issue. But if Harendra took the team to the podium in the HWL, maybe, just maybe, India could have offered him a contract till the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Don’t take away the fact that Harendra took India to a Junior World Championship gold. The last man to win India the Junior World Championship, Rajinder Singh was later elevated to senior coach and he won India the 2003 Asia Cup and then finished 4th in the 2003 Champions Trophy in Amstelveen.

Harendra’s answer to a position as national coach was: “I will win the Asia Cup, give India a podium at the HWL Final, podium at the CWG and Asian Games and also a podium at the World Cup and Tokyo Olympics.”

Just after being sacked, legendary coach, Ric Charlesworth, said, “Indian hockey is a jungle managed by people who have no idea of the sport or its advancement.”

For Hockey India, sacking Oltmans would have come easy. But to fulfil those promises and ensure that Indian hockey kept pace and rose beyond its present world ranking of six would require some doing.