Former Indian Hockey Coach Roelant Oltmans on Pakistan's Radar

India's former Dutch coach, Roelant Oltmans is being targeted by the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) ahead of the commonwealth games. They want him to take the charge of their national team before the games commence. A trusted source in the federation informed that Oltmans who had previously coached the team during 2003-2004 was in Oman where Pakistan is playing a triangular tournament with Japan and all the other hosts. The source also said that India's ex-coach is in the talks with the Pakistan Hockey Federation and their secretary. If everything works out well and he agrees to take up this new assignment, he will be guiding Pakistan for the Commonwealth Games in April.

Oltmans has asked for a few days, the source informed, because he has been extensively involved with the Indian hockey at every level since 2013. Roelant Oltmans was first appointed as the high-performance director by the Hockey India in 2013 but he took over as the head coach after the controversial ouster of another Dutchman, Paul Van Ass. It seems that all sparks ignited with the poor performance of the national team last year as they barely managed to qualify for the World Cup finals that are due to be held in India later this year. Pakistan also failed to qualify for the last Olympics that were held in Brazil which sparked off a huge debate on the decline of the hockey in their country.

By: Neha Maheshwari

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