Hockey India on Wednesday lashed out at former women’s team chief coach Sjoerd Marijne, for making“the malicious attempt to paint a dark picture of Indian sports administration.” 

The Dutch coach in an interview with the national daily has alleged that his previous employers, Sports Authority of India (SAI), have withheld his salary.

Marijne was hailed for his role in taking the Rani Rampal-led women’s hockey team to a historic fourth-place finish at the Tokyo Olympics.

So this very strong condemnation by Hockey India has come as a surprise 

“We are disappointed that despite having the opportunity to have an extremely lucrative job here in India provided by the SAI, this is the kind of a response we observe after completion of his tenure. 

As far as we understand, Sjoerd Marijne has been paid his salary till August 7, 2021, and is owed only a balance amount of USD 1800. " Hockey India said in a strongly worded rebuttal 

“Marijne’s bid to tarnish the Indian sports administration for being asked to return the laptop with the invaluable data is a case in point. 

We are extremely satisfied with the alacrity with which SAI acts on Hockey India’s proposals and have no reason to believe that any form of red tape exists to hamper the evolution of Indian sport which has, in fact, gained an upward trajectory,” said  Hockey India.

 Further elaborating  HI  Secretary-General  Rajinder Singh said , We may point out that not returning the laptop issued to him amounts to data theft since it contains enormous amounts of critical data on the Indian players. We recommend taking necessary penal action against Marijne to facilitate the recovery of the laptop and the data it holds

 “The Indian sports ecosystem and us at Hockey India as well, hold the athlete at the highest regard. Any prize money or performance incentive is prioritized for them and rightly so. The payment of any such prize money is given at the discretion of the State and corporate. A Coach, receiving a salary for a specific job cannot hold himself in the same light and demand this.” he opined

“It is disappointing that individuals from certain European Countries come to India for lucrative jobs however want to criticize the establishment once they have departed, we have also witnessed recently the response again of certain European Countries to the Indian athletes winning the FIH Annual Awards, which does not speak well of them.”  Rajinder Singh said

We appreciate the efforts of all our athletes, coaching, and support staff which has come together to warrant our success, and will continue to do so without bias and with the utmost professionalism. We would expect all those we work with to maintain the same level of ethics and commitment for the larger good of the sport and not for personal gains.

“We would also like to point out that the fourth-place finish of the Indian women’s team in the Olympic Games in Tokyo is due to the combined effort of a lot of people, not the least the athletes themselves, the coaching staff and the support staff who worked to raise the fitness levels of the players. Hence, his expectation of prize money or incentive is unprecedented,” he added

HSB