No Regrets Over Sacking, Paul van Ass Was Incompetent: Narendra Batra

Hockey India chief Narinder Batra on Saturday conceded that the premature exit of Paul van Ass was a setback to the national team's preparations for the 2016 Olympics but made it clear that he had no regrets for letting go of "an incompetent coach".(Oltmans Appointed Hockey Coach)

Batra responded to criticism from van Ass, who had called the Hockey India boss as an "autocratic administrator".

"That is his opinion. To me, he was incompetent as a coach but was good as a motivator. I didn't know this when he came here first five months ago," Batra said after his meeting with Injeti Srinivas, Sports Authority of India (SAI) Director General, here.

The SAI chief, however, chose not to comment after his brief meeting with Batra.

"SAI will make its recommendation to the Ministry on Monday. I don't wish to make any comments at this stage," Srinivas said.

Batra, who visited SAI headquarters after meeting Oltmans and HI CEO Elena Norman, did most of the talking.

"It is indeed a setback and I concede that. We have got behind in our Olympic preparation by a month. Now we should move on from all this and look to the future," he said referring to the latest controversy to have hit Indian hockey, triggered by an on field altercation between Batra and van Ass during the World League Semifinals in Belgium.

"I don't want to say much about a person who says one lie after another. He says he doesn't have a ticket, when the ticket was there. He was so much demoralised before the quarterfinal against Malaysia. The players told me he was nervous before the game, how can he motivate the team in that case?"

Talking more about van Ass not being a good coach, Batra said he was only a good motivator.

"I started evaluating (after World League), when you are in Holland, you get a support staff of 10. Forward coach, midfield coach, goalkeeper coach and other strategists, it doesn't happen in India. He felt he was overworked. He was not able to deliver. He said to the players that Hockey India was putting pressure on him. Who has put pressure? I met him twice only in five months.

"As I said, he was a good motivator but not a good coach. Planning, strategy is also part of coaching," Batra explained. Van Ass is the latest foreign coach to have shown the door after Australians Michael Nobbs, Terry Walsh, and Spaniard Jose Brasa were unceremoniously sacked by HI.

Asked whether there was anything wrong in the HI functioning, Batra retorted: "The decision on Brasa was already taken before we took charge, Nobbs left on health reasons and he still talks to us, with Walsh there was the issue of financial irregularities he committed in USA."

He also confirmed that assistance coach Jude Felix has resigned but refused to speak on on Special Committee recommending disciplinary action against senior India player Gurbaj Singh for "misbehaviour and creating disharmony within the team".

"I don't discuss individuals in public. Whatever decision has been made, those are internal things and will be resolved internally. Besides that, Jude Felix has resigned, his resignation has been accepted."

On other recommendations being made by the Special Committee that recommended the removal of van Ass yesterday, Batra said: "There is a need for scientific advisors, sports psychologist. This was discussed earlier as well."

Batra made no bones of India's performance in the World League Semifinals where it lost badly to higher-ranked teams.

"It is time the men's team shows consistency. If they would have lost 1-0, 2-0 to bigger teams, then it is still okay. Losing so badly to Australia (2-6), Britain (1-5) and Belgium (0-4), something is seriously wrong somewhere. Indian now needs to be in top four otherwise something is seriously wrong with us," he concluded.