Foreign coach not a solution for India, Pak hockey: Zaman
Former captain and coach of Pakistan hockey team Tahir Zaman feels that foreign coaches are not a long term solution for India and Pakistan hockey as they come from completely different background.
- Press Trust of India
- Updated: June 21, 2011 09:18 PM IST
Former captain and coach of Pakistan hockey team Tahir Zaman feels that foreign coaches are not a long term solution for India and Pakistan hockey as they come from completely different background.
"Almost all the experiments with foreign coaches have flopped in India and Pakistan. India once brought Ric Charlesworth as high performance director but could not utilise him. Same is the case with Pakistan," Zaman told PTI from Cairo where he works as head coach of Egypt men's team.
"People say that Pakistan had won the 1994 Sydney World Cup because of Dutch coach Hans Jorritsma. He was an important part of the Pakistani contingent at Sydney but his role was restricted to train the team on specific areas like short corners and defense. And he was neither in charge of the entire squad, nor the principle planner. The overall incharge was the team manager Rashid Jr.
"During the 1994 World Cup it was also interesting to note that Pakistan won most of their matches on the basis of field goals, playing fast attacking hockey that was their quintessential style, and not penalty corners," he added. Jorritsma was the first foreign coach of the Pakistan hockey team, followed by Dutch coach Reolant Oltmans (2004-05) and currently they have another Dutchman in Michel Van Den Heuvel.
India, meanwhile had German born Gerhard Peter Rach (2004), Australian veteran Ric Charlesworth (2008) and Spain's Jose Brasa (2009-10) as foreign coaches.