India men’s hockey team’s chief coach Terry Walsh, who resigned on Tuesday, has withdrawn his resignation after meeting with Sports Authority of India (SAI). This in turn comes as a big relief to the Indian hockey board.
Walsh’s resignation shifts the focus away from the Asian Games gold winning team to the rift of egos between Hockey India and SAI, with the coach claiming that “flexibility and Indian bureaucracy don’t go hand in hand.”
Earlier on Tuesday, the SAI DG Jiji Thomson has assured that the matter will be “resolved” as they want the veteran Australian to continue.
Thomson said he had met Walsh at his office on Tuesday and tried to convince the Australian to carry on in his post.
“I met him (Walsh) when he came to SAI. He told me that he doesn’t have any issues with SAI. The matter will be resolved. We want him to continue in his position,” Thomson told said
Even Walsh had hinted that he was ready to reconsider his decision if he was given a new contract on his terms and conditions by the SAI.
The 60-year-old Australian, himself a noted Olympian, submitted his resignation in dramatic fashion, saying that he was finding it difficult to adjust to the decision making style of the sporting bureaucracy in the country. His contract was to run till the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Soon after his resignation, Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said that he was looking for a resolution of the issue and has sought a report from SAI within the next 24 hours.
Walsh’s resignation created a flutter in the hockey fraternity and triggered off a blame game between Hockey India and SAI.
