The saga of Roelant Oltmans taking up the post as the Coach of the National Team will hopefully be answered this Saturday by the MHF President Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah.
And it is no April Fools joke as I heard that there is a change of mid both from Oltmans and MHF and this deal wil probably not materialise. Well we shall leave that to MHF to decide as after all it is the MHF President who is sourcing for funds and to pay the Dutchman, not the public's money, as was the argument put forward by another association lately. So there you are, do what you think is best MHF.
But while all that is going on, we have the question of just who is the current Chief Coach of the National Hockey Team? We have two contrasting personalities, Stephen van Huizen and Tai Beng Hai.
While the MHF Coaching Committee and the MHF/NSC Joint Committee named Stephen as the Chief Coach, no formal announcement was made after the MHF Management Committee met and thus just who will lead the team in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup this May is debatable.
Some warlords do not want either of the two in the hot seat, opting to wait for Oltmans to turn up at KLIA and assume the position. Before I forget though, Oltmans is scheduled to come for the Azlan Shah Cup and evaluate ( funny the word keeps appearing frequently of late).
Beng Hai was the Chief Coach until the World Cup Qualifiers last November and was reportedly paid RM8,000. This figure was reviewed in January and is said to be receiving RM6,000. So that puts a question mark itself if Beng Hai is the Chief Coach.
As for Stephen, he shuttles between work and training as the release from CIMB has yet to be sorted out. Though his employers have released Stephen, there is the question of allowances and salary, something that MHF Deputy President Nur Azmi Ahmad was to sort out according to MHF sources. But true to form, Azmi has yet to do it as he was bus courting Oltmans in New Delhi.
So life goes on in MHF.
All we want to know is who is the Chief Coach? So will the real chief coach please stand up (professionally).
