The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : IHF yet to take a decision on Rach

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Monday, Jan 10, 2005

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IHF yet to take a decision on Rach

NEW DELHI, JAN. 9. The Indian team has gone back ``strategically'' post Athens Olympics, the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) admitted on Sunday, but said it was still to take a decision on whether to show the door to coach Gerhard Rach.

``Strategically we seem to have gone back after the Olympics. We have not progressed. That is disappointing,'' IHF president K. P. S. Gill said in an exclusive interview with PTI.

However, wiser by the experience, when it took decisions in haste, the IHF would take its time before deciding on whether to replace the German.

``We have not taken any decision on Rach as yet. We will take a decision at the executive committee meeting at the end of this month. This time we are in no hurry because till March we have no competitive hockey.

German-born Rach, the first foreign coach of the hockey team, was appointed just days before the Olympics in place of Rajinder Singh, but he failed to arrest the team's sliding fortunes, raising speculation of an imminent ouster.

Asked whether some of the comments that Rach made to the media went against him, Gill said IHF was not bothered.

``Rach has a problem with English. May be he did not understand what the media was asking. But what he said or not is not our concern, we will go by his performance after Olympics and the fact is that the team has not improved.

"Before the Olympics we were in a hurry (to appoint a new coach). Before the Asian Games also we were in a similar situation. These were the two occasions when we were more or less under duress,'' Gill said.

``This time we have enough time to ponder over the issue. We want to carry out an in depth discussion and also take the opinion of ex-Olympians.''

The IHF president said there were four to five Europeans who have shown interest in the job and the Federation would consider all pros and cons before making the final call.

``Ric Charlesworth and four or five others have gone on record that they are interested in the job. We have to make our choice.''

Media hype

Asked what was the reason for the team consistently failing to live up to the pre-tournament claims of the IHF, Gill said the media was to be blamed for putting pressure on the players by creating unnecessary hype.

``Of late there is too much publicity and media glare. Players are unable to handle the pressure and they do not know how to handle the press,'' Gill said.

The IHF president was, however, pleased with the progress made by the juniors and said it was for the first time in many years that the players were playing as a team and not as individuals.

``We have some promising players like Len Aiyappa and Adrian D'Souza. The juniors have done well. We put them in Champions Trophy and they did as well as any Indian team had done in the last 10-12 years.

Gill said the priority for the IHF now was ``to make the hockey players fit.'' — PTI

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