The Indian men and women’s teams have issued a joint statement after former coach Sjoerd Marijne’s allegations against captain Manpreet Singh surfaced. Marijne, who has had coaching stints with both Indian men and women teams, in his upcoming book ‘Will Power – The Inside Story of the Incredible Turnaround in Indian Women’s Hockey’ alleged that Manpreet asked a player “to stop playing well” so that his friends could get in the team.
Furthermore, Marijne alleged that the ex-FIH president Narinder Batra didn’t know the names of any other female players apart from the former captain Rani Rampal, as quoted by the Indian Express. Hockey India in its response has termed the allegations baseless and said that the players will take action against Marijne as it is not only a breach of trust between the players and the coach but also he is exploiting the players’ personal information for commercial gains.
The joint statement by the two hockey teams read, “We have seen in the press today some disturbing allegations being made by the erstwhile Chief Coach of our teams, Mr. Sjoerd Marijne. We have come together to state our deep disappointment in his exploitation of our personal information and false accusations. He has used his time of coaching us for commercial gain to sell his book at the cost of our reputations.
“This is a complete breach of trust and his duty of care as a coach. It also leads to all Indian athletes like us to feel vulnerable in such situations,” the statement added.
The teams further said that they didn’t find any record of allegations filed with the Hockey India and the Sports Authority of India at the time as if the incidences claimed by the Dutch coach had been true, there would have been some record of it.
“The Indian National men’s and women’s hockey team stand together with each other and will defend our integrity that has been brought to question by him. Our country, team and the sport of hockey are our collective top priority and under no circumstances will we allow for the integrity of any of our team members to be compromised for anyone else’s personal gain,” the statement further said.
Marijne was in charge of the men’s hockey team for nine months before the side’s ouster from the 2018 Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast before he took over the role for women’s team. Marijne led the women’s team to a historic fourth-place finish at Tokyo Olympics.
