LAHORE, June 19 The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has received the green signal from the Federal Ministry of Sports for the appointment of Michel van den Heuvel of the Netherlands as coach for the national team until the 2012 London Olympics.
“The PHF had already recommended Michel van den Heuvel as the next national team coach to the Federal Ministry of Sports and was awaiting final approval from them regarding the matter, which we finally got on Saturday,” said Asif Bajwa.
Asked about the tenure of the new coach, Asif said “He is coming to Pakistan on Monday and will discuss the terms and conditions of his contract with us after which we will confirm the tenure of his appointment to the media,” he said.
But surprisingly only hours later, a PHF press release announced that Heuvel will coach the national team until the 2012 London Olympics.
“The Ministry of Sports on Saturday has given its approval for appointing Dutch coach Michel van den Heuvel for the Pakistan hockey team on Saturday. The new foreign coach will join the national training camp at the Hockey Club of Pakistan Stadium, Karachi, on June 21. The contract between PHF and Michel Van Den will be till the 2012 London Olympics,” said the official press release.
Heuvel guided the Netherlands to a bronze medal in the World Cup in New Delhi this year. However, his contract with the Holland team could not be extended. Heuvel will be Pakistans third Dutch expert. Earlier, in 1994, the team got Hans Jorritsma as trainer and Roelant Oltmans served as coach in 2000.
Bajwa said that the decision to appoint Heuvel was taken after serious discussion.“PHF has decided to undertake every measure for the revival of our fortune and providing a foreign coach is one of them. So we have taken this decision in the best interest of the game,” he further said.
“The PHF thinks this is the only way to get back to the top and we will give him [Van den Heuvel] complete support as we are sure that he is capable of delivering the goods,” the secretary further said.
Considering Heuvel's performance in the World Cup, the PHF deems it enough, at least to help Pakistan win the Asian Games in November this year, the main target of the current PHF hierarchy headed by Qasim Zia. Pakistans has been on a continued winning drought since 1994, the last time we won the World Cup and Champions Trophy.
Heuvel will also be bringing along his hand-picked technical staff, which will be in addition to his receiving assistance from Olympian Ahmad Alam and international Ajmal Khan here. Eminent Olympic captain Manzoor Junior has also been appointed manager of the Pakistan team.
The new coach will have the tour of Europe as his first assignment. The next important assignment is the Asian Games.
