'WFI doesn't believe in Indian coaches'

Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Saran on Tuesday asserted that it was high time India have a "foreign" coach, who helps the grapplers in winning medals in the upcoming events like the Asian Games, Commonwealth and the Olympics.

While talking to ANI, Saran said that Indian coaches lack international expertise.

"The biggest problem we have right now is that of coach. Some people felt that the last coach was there for a bit long. Whatever resources we have and whatever we can spend, we don't get good foreign coaches in that amount. Or you can say that there is a dearth of coaches. We are not getting the level of coaches that he wish to have," Saran said.

"So, at present our priority is to get a good coach in all the three styles at the earliest. We want that person who becomes a coach, should be an Olympic medallist and should be world champion so that our wrestlers feel that they are getting benefitted from him/her," he added.

He further stressed, "We have to bring a foreign coach."

"No Indian coach matches the levels or the parameters that we desire. No Indian is a two or three-time world champion and an Olympian medallist," he pointed out.

The WFI president, however, said that it was not that India doesn't have good coaches.

"Media poses questions that why we don't have a foreign coach. We earlier brought foreign coaches and our wrestlers benefitted from them...We have good coaches in India but it would be better if we bring in a foreign coach," he insisted.