Women's national hockey coach Sjoerd Marijne has been named the chief coach of the men's side, replacing Roelant Oltmans who was sacked last week. In Marijne’s place, the World Cup-winning junior team coach Harendra Singh has been appointed the High Performance Specialist coach of the senior women's team.
While Marijne will take charge on September 20 after returning from an ongoing tour of Europe with the women's team, Harendra will be on the job from Saturday.
The decisions were announced by newly-appointed Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore on his official twitter page.
According to a top Hockey India official, both Marijne and Harendra have been given a tenure till the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The decision came as a surprise since Hockey India had advertised for Oltmans' successor on its website just three days ago. HI had set September 15 as the deadline to apply for the post.
However, the official said HI withdrew the advertisement on Thursday.
"The advertisement has been withdrawn as both HI and the Sports Authority of India felt Marijne is the best candidate for the job having spent more than six months in the country," the official told PTI.
43-year-old Marijne, who was appointed as the Indian women’s coach in February this year, has never worked with a national men’s team before.
The position for men's coach had fallen vacant after Oltmans was sacked last Saturday following a string of poor performances in the recent past.
Oltmans came to India fours years ago as a High Performance Director before assuming the role of coach in 2015 following Paul van Ass' removal.
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