National hockey coach quits
Walsh got fed-up with decision-making style of sporting bureaucracy in India
By : harpreet kaur lamba
Update: 2014-10-22 03:20 GMT
New Delhi: Indian hockey coach Terry Walsh on Tuesday put in his papers, weeks after guiding the team to a gold at the Asian Games. On a day of high drama, Walsh cited “difficulty adjusting to the decision-making style of the sporting bureaucracy in India” as the reason behind his move, suggesting his differences with Hockey India and the Sports Authority of India.
After a series of meetings with HI and SAI though, he is believed to have “agreed to reconsider his decision”.“There is fatigue factor but I feel I just need to move away from the contents of what presently exists in my contractual arrangements. We are now looking at the possibility of how that can be reset,” Walsh was quoted as saying.
Walsh is slated to meet sports minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Wednesday and a “compromise formula” is believed to be on the way to enable the Australian to stay on till 2016 — the period of his contract.
It is no secret that almost all foreign coaches have found it “difficult” to work under HI president Narinder Batra. In a closed door meeting with the national players on Monday night, Walsh had said, “I have decided to leave. It is very difficult to work in an environment when I do not even have a say in deciding camp dates, venues or announcing the final team to the players.”