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Decision to sack Rach deferred
The Indian Hockey Federation today deferred a decision on underfire coach Gerhard Rach.
- NDTVSports
- Updated: February 25, 2007 09:04 AM IST
Read Time:2 min
New Delhi:
The Indian Hockey Federation today deferred a decision on underfire coach Gerhard Rach, who was widely expected to be shown the exit door, leaving the country' first ever foreign coach to wait till the middle of January to know his fate. The IHF has asked Rach to take a short Christmas break and come back in January which is when his future here will be decided upon. Rach meets Gill National team coach Gerhard Rach had a brief meeting with Indian Hockey Federation President KPS Gill on Tuesday afternoon and although he came out with a smile on his face, there were still unanswered questions about his association with Indian Hockey. "Mr Gill told me to go home and enjoy the Christmas vacations with my family and he wished me all the best and asked me to wish my family a merry Christmas and he has asked me to return in January and then we will decide about the future," said Rach. But if the axe did fall, then Rach would be the sixth coach to lose his job in just the last four years. Rach readies for the future And although his contract which was only till the Champions Trophy has not been renewed, Rach has made it very clear that if his services were no longer required, he had already planned his next course of action. "I have to feed my family so I have been given offers from some other countries, so if when I come back in January and if the IHF does not need me I have already made alternate arrangements for myself," added Rach. While Federation President KPS Gill was non-committal on the future of Gerhard Rach, saying that the issue of his sacking was a figment of the media's imagination, Rach however has hinted that the shortage of funds in the IHF could force him to look elsewhere. Rach under fire Rach, who took over from Rajinder Singh just two weeks before Olympics, has come under severe criticism for the team's failure to put up a fight at the highest level. India's fourth place finish in the recently-concluded Champions Trophy in Lahore intesnified the clamour for his ouster. "Gill agreed that I was under a lot of pressure to deliver in the Champions Trophy," Rach said referring to India's performance in the elite six-nation competition where they won just won out of six matches to finish fourth. Under Rach, India finished a dismal seventh in the Athens Olympics and lost the eight-match Test series against Pakistan 2-4 before their medal-less finish in Lahore.(With PTI inputs)
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