LAHORE: Confident over the result of his first assignment as Pakistan team’s head coach at the Common­wealth Games, Roelant Oltmans has conveyed a clear message to the Pakistan Hockey Federa­tion that he will solely be responsible to pick the squad for all future events, virtually giving no space to the national selection committee headed by Islahuddin Siddiqi, well-informed sou­rces have told Dawn.

Under Oltmans of the Netherlands, Pakistan produced better results at the Commonwealth Games on Gold Coast, Australia last month. The greenshirts’ performance ended the string of heavy defeats at the hands of India, Canada and other teams.

The 63-year-old Oltmans, who spent hardly fifteen days with the Pakistan team to prepare them for the Commonwealth Games, soon after getting the assignment at the end of the four-nation tournament in Oman, showed remarkable results as the Mohammad Rizwan Senior-led outfit managed to draw all their matches on Gold Coast — against arch-rivals India, Malaysia, England and Wales. They also won their 7-8 position match against Canada 3-1 to remain undefeated at the high-profile event.

In 2017, Pakistan suffered huge defeats at the hands of India, Canada, Malaysia and several other teams.

In this backdrop, the greenshirts’ performance on Gold Coast can be termed encouraging for which Oltmans has the right to take due credit as the veteran Dutch coach joined a battered team prior to the Gold Coast Games.

However, in the latest scenario how the PHF would manage to sideline a strong chief selector and Olympian like Islahuddin Siddiqi while accepting Oltmans’ demand on team selection is a major question.

During his previous tenure with Pakistan team back in 2004, Oltmans had used his full powers, including those concerning team selection, despite the fact that the PHF at that time was then being run by two high-ranking Army officials — Gen Aziz Khan (president) and retired Brig Mussarratullah (secretary).

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2018