Roelant Oltmans' association of nearly five years with Indian hockey ended on Saturday after he was sacked as the national team's coach. Hockey India (HI) said that while his role in improving the team's fitness and cohesiveness has been appreciated, the results and the performance weren't up to the mark.
The timing seems odd
The decision to part ways with Oltmans is not a surprise in itself, because barring a World League Final bronze in 2015 on home soil and a silver-medal finish at the 2016 Champions Trophy in London, he has had little to show in terms of results.
The World League Semi-final in London a couple of months ago looked like a point where it seemed that the end was nigh for the Dutch coach. India pulled in a couple of lopsided wins against Pakistan, but lost their very first knockout game against Malaysia and then finished with a defeat to Canada.
Since that point, though, India went on a tour of Europe with a largely experimental team and notched up impressive wins over Netherlands and Austria, and also gave a good account of themselves against Belgium. All three European nations were playing with their full teams, in preparation for their continental championships.
Important events coming up
India are effectively without a designated coach -- the current High Performance Director David John will fill in till a replacement is appointed -- for two important events this year itself, the Asia Cup in Dhaka and then the World League Final in Bhubaneswar.
In 2018, India will host the men's World Cup for the first time after eight years. Besides the global tournament that India haven't won at senior level since 1975, they also have to look at success in the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games. A win in the latter would also give the team a direct entry into the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The new coach won't have a lot of time to come up with results, and that is a consistent bane of Indian hockey in recent years. If Jose Brasa felt he was short-changed by the erstwhile Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), the board that has followed has also had some unsavoury farewells with foreign staff of different nationalities -- Australians Michael Nobbs, Terry Walsh and Dutchman Paul van Ass. Their stints have been varied in length, with the only consistent thing being how little time the incumbents have been left with to get the team playing in their own style.
Oltmans' legacy
Roelant Oltmans took over when the Indian hockey team was low on morale as well as profile -- around the time the team finished in last place in the 2012 Olympics in London.
In the last five years, he has been an active coach in different stints with both the national team as well as one of the Hockey India League franchises, but has made his biggest mark in empowering some of younger players in the squad. Manpreet Singh, Mandeep Singh, Akashdeep Singh and more recently, the likes of Harjeet Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Pardeep Mor have all grown in confidence under Oltmans.
Tactically, he did a good job of introducing a sense of discipline into the Indian team. Long known for their individual flair, India have benefited from a strong defensive structure in the last couple of years.
Oltmans' coaching stints, apart from the Dutch and Pakistan national teams, also included time with football club NEC, and he inculcated a habit among Indian players to follow football to borrow ideas and strategic inputs. Indian strikers often take to the field after watching videos of players like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to seek inspiration about how best to position themselves and take advantage of set-pieces and off-the-ball possession.
Oltmans has paid the price for a lack of performance and results under him, but the larger question must be considered: Will there be a similar scrutiny of results for whoever steps in to replace him? And if not, how would Indian hockey then react?