‘Coaching should be left to coaches’

Charlesworth’s comments come after another foreign coach, Paul van Ass, was sacked unceremoniously five months into his three-year contract following a spat between Hockey India chief Narinder Batra and the Dutchman during the World League Semifinals in Belgium.  “You are lucky I suppose that Roelant Oltmans (now the chief coach) is still there. He has been known to the players and has been around for a while (as <g data-gr-id="19">High Performance</g> Manager) but yes too much chopping and changing can’t be good for the team,” Charlesworth said on Tuesday. 

The Western Australian, who is both a World <g data-gr-id="15">Cup winning</g> player and coach, knows what it is like to coach in India, having coached in the Hockey India League, besides spending tough 10 months in 2008 as technical director of the national team. 

“In the end, you should leave the coaching up to the coaches. You put them <g data-gr-id="25">incharge</g> and you let them do it. There have been good things happening in Indian hockey of <g data-gr-id="22">late</g> but then you hear of something like this (Van Ass ouster) happening,” said Charlesworth, who resigned after coaching the Kookaburras to success at the 2014 Hockey World Cup in the Netherlands.