NEW DELHI: Former Olympian Balkinal hockey coach.
He succeeds Jhaman Lal Sharma whose term expired at the end of the last Indira Gandhi International Gold Cup Tournament.
The selection committee comprising Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) president R. Prasad Director General of Sports Authority of India (SAT) V.K.Verma Indian Olympic Association (LOA) nominee and IHF secretary Gursewak Singh which met here unanimously approved the name of Balkishen Singh for the crucial post.
Balkishen Singh at present the regional director North Zone of Sai represented the country in 1956.and 1960 Olympics.as full back.
He was the coach of the Indian Olympics teams at Mexico City (1968) Moscow (1980) and Los Angles (1984).
Balkishen who returns to train the national team after a lapse of seven years expressed happiness at his appointment and was confident of once again getting India back amongst the top teams.
His term has been approved till the 12th Asian Games at Hiroshima in 1994.
The IHF has also given him a free hand in the entire training of the national squad.
Balkishen takes over at a time when Indian hockey is perhaps at its lowest ever both in terms of morale and performance.
It will also be for the first time that India has not directly qualified for the Olympics and have to go through the grind of coming through the pre-Olympic qualification tournament to be held at Auckland in October this year.
Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) presi dent R. Prasad today described the comments of former national coach Jhaman Lal Sharma against the THF as “signs of frustration”.
Every player or coach who retires without achieving anything hurls accusations at the THF” Mr Prasad said reacting to Mr Sharma’s statement that the LHF was not interested in promoting the game.
Mr Prasad asserted that the JHF was doing “its best despite various constraints”
“I am surprised that Mr Sharma thinks that IHF is not doing anything for the game only after his term had expired. He never talked about this when he was the coach” Mr Prasad added.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 1, 1991
