New Delhi,
Hockey India has appointed Harendra Singh as the chief coach of the men’s hockey team. He takes over from Dutchman Sjoerd Marijne, who returns to take care of the women’s hockey team as its chief coach. Harendra is expected to be bracketed among the top earning Indian coaches, who get a monthly salary of Rs 2 lakh.

Speculation of Marijne’s sacking has been doing the rounds for over a week after the men’s team, which had won silver medals in the last two Commonwealth Games, finished fourth in this year’s edition.

Hockey India sources said that the Sports Ministry and Sports Authority of India (SAI) questioned the need for the swap during a meeting on Tuesday. But on HI’s insistence, the officials relented.

Question marks were raised about the team’s preparedness before the CWG. “There was no coordination in the team. You can’t throw a bunch of youngsters in a few months before a major tournament and expect them to give you instant results,” said an India player. “We never looked like a team during the entire tournament.”

A source told The Tribune that till Monday, nothing was decided. Three options were open sacking Marijne and replacing him with someone else, swapping Marijne with Harendra, or appointing Harendra as the men’s coach and giving the women’s team’s charge to CR Kumar.

In the recent years, Harendra has coached the India men’s junior team that won the World Cup in 2016. Then he led the Indian women’s team to the Asia Cup title last year. Harendra returns as the semior men’s coach after two previous stints. He had resigned after India’s semifinal loss to Malaysia in the 2010 Asian Games.