NEW DELHI: M. P. Ganesh has quit as the national hockey coach.
He handed over his resignation letter to the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) president, Mr, Raghunandan Prasad according to sources.
The IHF executive committee, meeting is expected to finalize a new panel of coaches for training the national squad for the forthcoming Beijing Asian Games.
Ganesh was the chief coach of the Indian team which finished 10th in the recent Lahore World Cup.
Sources said India’s poor performance at Lahore was not the reason for Ganesh’s resignation; He reportedly had a tiff with the IHF chief before the team’s departure for Pakistan.
Ganesh, sources said refused to accept the “poor quality” kits, especially track suits given to the team. He is also reported to have objected to the “almost regular practice” of providing shorts and shirts at the last moment which had created problems in jersey numbers etc.
According to sources, Ganesh went to Lahore assuring the IHF president who “could not tolerate criticism” that he would quit after his return.
Ganesh also submitted to the IHF his detailed report on the performance of the team.
Ganesh was appointed national coach mainly to train the team for the Beijing Asian Games,
Ironically, with the Asiad only a little more than five months away, the IHF is yet to come up with any concrete proposals for the preparation of the team, sources said,
Though the federation had publicly stated that this official, who accompanied the team to Lahore, were in touch with the Dutch coaches, the fact is that it did not even have their addresses for communications,” sources said.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 23, 1990
