LAHORE: While renowned Dutch coach Roelant Oltmans took over at the helm of the Pakistan national junior hockey team for a month-long stint leading to the end of the Asia Cup, the fate of the national senior team head coach Siegfried Aikman remains in the balance.

Oltmans has been hired by the Pakistan Hockey Federation as team consultant for the Junior Asia Cup in Oman, which runs from May 23 to June 1, and as he arrived in the country on Thursday, he would’ve been warned about his compatriot Aikman’s travails.

Aikman, who was hired in December 2021, hasn’t received his dues for several months due to the ongoing rift between the PHF and the Pakistan Sports Board but Oltmans cut a rather composed figure as he met with the probables attending the camp here at the DHA Club.

“I have already seen some of the probables in the past and although we have little time until the Asia Cup, I will try to do my best to find out the areas where the players need to improve,” he told reporters.

Oltmans has coached the national senior team in the past and informed that a “further role with the junior team” could be discussed after the Asia Cup, which acts as a qualifier for the Junior World Cup.

Aikman, meanwhile, has found the hard way what it entails to be a coach of a hockey team in Pakistan. Although he remained tight-lipped when asked by Dawn about whether he’d received any of his dues, PHF secretary Haider Hussain confirmed that the Dutchman remained the senior team coach “without salary”, citing it was the PSB’s responsibility to pay his salary.

Aikman was among five coaches hired by the PSB for various sports with his pay package set at US$10,000 per month. “We don’t have the funds to give him his salary,” added Haider.

No proper agreement between the PHF and the PSB was signed for Aikman’s appointment and once PHF president retired Brig Khalid Sajjad Khokhar ignored the move by the country’s sports regulatory body to appoint a working committee to oversee affairs of the hockey governing body in July last year, relations between the two were soured.

Khokhar went ahead and held elections of the PHF, resulting in its denotification by the PSB.

“It was a wrong move on part of the federal government as it cannot disaffiliate any federation,” former PSB director general retired Col Asif Zaman, under whose tenure Aikman was hired, told Dawn. “After that, it became difficult to pay Aikman as the PHF had suspended its working relationship with the PHF.”

The PSB is under new leadership with Shoaib Khosa taking over as its director general. “I’m going to get updates on the issue before addressing it,” he told Dawn.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2023