Indian national team failed to qualify for the FIH World League Stage III at Rotterdam last month which brought the untimely departure of foreign coach of Indian hockey, Michael Nobbs. Nobbs health was deteriorating and top officials of Hockey India (HI), including the secretary general NK Batra didn’t want him to continue anymore and one of the clues for this action came in when earlier this year legendary Dutch coach Roelant Oltmans was appointed as the high performance director.
Nobbs was quoted by DNA saying, “Well, it was obvious that HI top bosses were only interacting with Oltmans because he is the man who has to implement his ideas for obvious reasons. A coach is always busy, travelling and coaching the team 24x7.” A good rest for Nobbs would have surely taken care of the medical prescription displays digits of 180/110 under his blood pressure column but the ex-coach of Indian Hockey team is not in any mood to make a mountain off a molehill.
“Oltmans has put in a good programme for the future. The Dutch coach has publically said that India need six to eight years to fix the problem and everyone has accepted that,” he added.
He slammed that it has been 30 years that India has been struggling with all the problems and blaming the coach for the recent losses is nothing but a non-sense.
Out-going coach was quoted by The Hindu saying, “We finished where our ranking put us (sixth) in FIH World. We had many foreign coaches who have all been quite successful. Suddenly when they come to India and these are the results they have. Is it their fault?. It’s simply the system here. India has had 30 years to fix these problems. What has the results been in last 30 years. Is there anything to be excited about?”
He wants Indian team to do well, especially by the next Olympic Games. “I am hopeful we will be able to do well by the next Olympic Games,” he said.
Nobbs came up with a sarcastic remark on HI for agreeing to the statement made by Oltman. He added, “Not really, if we follow the programme we laid down in last two years. But the HI and public have accepted Oltmans statement. Are you all ready to give him that much time? Remember, you (HI and SAI) all employed him for that only.”
Nobbs don’t want India to play the typical sub-continent hockey even because that formation of (5-3-2-1) could be disastrous. He was quoted by The Hindu saying, “I think making the team play the Indian style of attacking hockey would be a disaster. We’ve been losing by narrow margins recently against world’s top teams. If we play with Indian style, we will be murdered 10-0 or even worse. We should be adopting Australian or Dutch style (read European style) in order to progress.”
Nobbs is in the Capital to meet his employer Sports Authority of India’s director general on Wednesday and to settle his pending $27,000 dues as per his contract. “I want to go back as quickly as possible and take complete rest for next two to three months as has been prescribed by my doctor before taking a call on my future course of action,” added the visibly tired Australian.
Nobbs had a great time with the Indian team, especially with the captain sardar Singh who is also a good friend.“There was not a single bad incident during my tenure. All players backed me completely. And Sardar Singh (captain) was a good friend,” he added.
