Australian Graham Reid is identified by Hockey India to be the new chief coach of the men’s team, thus ending two-month hunt to fill in the position.
Reid’s name was finalized in a meeting where the Federation officials along with the Indian Olympic Association president Narinder Batra, met with Sports Authority of India (SAI) Director General Neelam Kapur and executive director Radhica Sreeman on Tuesday. The 54-year-old Australian’s name was proposed as Harendra Singh’s successor and forwarded to the sports authority for the approval which is expected in a couple of days.
The Indian men’s hockey team was without a coach after sacking of the former on January following a disappointing quarterfinal exit at the World Cup in Bhubaneswar last year.
“Reid’s contract is expected to be till 2022 but as has been the case in the past, the NSF will review his performance after every tournament,” a source told the PTI.
Reid was a member of the Australian hockey team that won the Silver medal in 1992 Barcelona Olympics and was a disciple of the legendary Ric Charlesworth. He was Australia’s coach at the 2016 Rio Olympics but quit and later in 2017 he took up the job as head coach of his former club Amsterdam as well as assistant coach of the Netherlands team.
