Marijne under HI scanner after medal-less CWG campaign

The Indian men's hockey team's medal-less and rudder-less Commonwealth Games performance has brought chief coach Sjoerd Marijne under the scanner with Hockey India scheduling a performance review meeting later this week.

It has been learnt that some senior players of the team, led by skipper Manpreet Singh, PR Sreejesh and Rupinder Pal Singh, met top HI officials here today and presented their explanation for the performance.

It is for the first time in 12 years (since 2006) that India failed to win a single medal in hockey at the CWG and this hasn't gone down well with the national federation, which said that it won't shy away from taking tough decisions after the review meeting.

According to a Hockey India official, not just the players, the coach's performance will also be scrutinised and corrective measures will be taken, if needed, as three important tournaments -- Champions Trophy, Asian Games and the season-ending World Cup -- are lined up this year.

"The performance in Gold Coast is definitely not acceptable. It is below-par to say the least. We have been providing all facilities to the team but they just fail to deliver in big events," the HI official said.

"We were one of the medal favourites but look how we performed against lower-ranked teams like Wales, Pakistan, New Zealand and England."
"Hockey is a team game and the coach is also accountable for players' performances. It will be too early to comment anything but Sjoerd too will have to come up with answers for the poor show."