Hockey India (HI) has said that it wants India's chief coach Roelant Oltmans to continue in his current position till the 2020 Olympics. His existing contract is set to expire in January 2017.
Speaking to ESPN , HI president Narinder Batra said that the recommendation had been forwarded to the Sports Authority of India for approval.
"We want Oltmans to stay with us as chief coach till the Tokyo Games. This decision comes after discussions with Oltmans. He has agreed to it and we have sent our proposal to SAI for approval," he said.
Oltmans, who took over as the High Performance Director of the side in 2013 and was given the added responsibility of chief coach in August last year, came in after a spate of foreign predecessors, with Michael Nobbs (2011-13) serving the longest tenure among them.
Batra hinted that HI is likely to appoint a separate High Performance Director, so that Oltmans can focus on his coaching role.
"Of course I want to continue in my current position of chief coach no doubt," Oltmans said, "Yes, it's under process, I have another two-and-a-half months or so before my contract expires There's a lot of potential in this team and the results will have to improve. We have won a couple of medals over the last year and need to get more consistent."
Under Oltmans, India had their best-ever finish at the Champions Trophy, winning a silver in June. The team also won a bronze at the World League Final in December 2015, a maiden podium finish for the senior team outside Asia at a global event in 35 years.
While India's performance at the Rio Olympics this year was slightly underwhelming - a quarterfinal loss to Belgium was not exactly the result that was being anticipated - the side has notably turned into a more cohesive unit, with a robust core group of players.
PR Sreejesh, the captain, agreed that the players would prefer Oltmans stay on with the side.
"We have been training under him for past three years, he knows each of our particular strengths and we are comfortable with his style of functioning. We would be happy though to accept whatever decision is finally taken in this regard since our job is to go out and play irrespective of who's the coach."